Crystal Hearts Pretty Cure
by kokoruu
Summary: [Fanseries] A race of parasitic beings called Helminth led by their king Selen, travel from planet to planet, harvesting the Crystal Hearts of the inhabitants to fuel their own bodies. The Treasure Kingdom's Queen Dia, fearing for her land and people, sends three brothers to Earth to find the Pretty Cure: legendary warriors from lore who are the only ones who can save the day!
1. A Resolute Flame will Protect Everyone!

"Jasper, Ruby, get up already!"

A very angry ball of blue dragon-shaped fluff kicked at his brothers again, but to no avail; they were out cold. He flapped his headwings in irritation as he glared at the pair of green and red dragon puffs sleeping soundly below him in a haphazard bed made of colorful sheets balled up in the center of the floor. The room they were in seemed to be carved out of a giant crystal, sparkling gently in the soft light given out by the glowing rocks inserted in the ceiling. The beauty was contrasted by the mess on the ground: toys made of crystal, vague food crumbs, shed fur, crystal plates, and more were sprawled out in every direction, except a curious patch of cleanliness on the far left side of the room, only marred by a simple cushion and a stack of books.

"Seriously, only you two would rather sleep in than go see the Queen!"

Huffing, the blue dragon puff stared at the books by the cushion, and the triangle shaped aquamarine embedded in his forehead started to glow. A faint blue light appeared around the books, and with a small pop, they vanished, only to reappear floating a few inches above the sleeping dragon puffs. And then they dropped. Needless to say they woke up that time.

"Ugh…did someone punch me when I was asleep again?" The green one, Jasper, groggily complained, slowly rising up and shaking his sore head.

"I feel like I got hit by a buncha rocks," Ruby, the red one, said, rolling off of his back and onto his feet. He was smaller than the blue dragon puff, and much smaller than Jasper.

"Books, actually, and you better hope they didn't get dented hitting your thick skulls." His aquamarine glowed again as he teleported his books back into their neat pile in what can be safely assumed was his side of the room.

"Didn't Aqua use rocks that one time, though?" Jasper asked Ruby.

"Okay, one: we don't have time for this inane conversation you're trying to start, and two: I told you that was an accident a hundred times now," Aqua fumed, cheeks staining red in anger. Ruby giggled.

"ANYWAY, dear brothers, now that you two have finally decided to grace the waking world with your presence, may I remind you that we have an audience with Queen Dia today?"

That got their attention.

"What, what, what?! That was today?! Oh no, we're so late, are we gonna get exiled or something?!"

"Ugh, stupid Aqua! Why didn't you wake us up earlier?"

Aqua let out a long suffering sigh and rubbed his temples.

* * *

Hinata Tsuyoshi wondered what it was like being able to go to the bathroom anytime she wanted.

Hinata had a huge family: two parents plus four siblings plus two bathrooms equaled having to wait in a queue in front of the bathroom door. Finally, the door opened and her perfectly coifed older brother Yoshiyuki came out, with her older sister Asame loudly complaining about the amount of time he spends on his hair before rushing into the bathroom. Yoshiyuki just hummed absently while smoothing out his already wrinkle-free dress shirt. He passed by Hinata before starting like he just realized something, and turned around and gave her a quick good morning before walking back down the hallway.

Asame bust out of the bathroom with a much better attitude than before.

"Hinata-chan?" she called, looking around. Hinata was right next to her, sitting on the floor.

"Um…" Hinata said, reaching up to tug at Asame's skirt.

"Oh! There you are. Yeah, I was wondering if I could borrow those pink and beige shoes of yours? They go with this outfit I got the other day and I forgot to get shoes to go with it."

Hinata nodded. Asame said thanks and ruffled her black hair up and skipped back to their shared room. Finally, Hinata got to go brush her teeth and fix her hair into her signature twin pigtails, and listen to the chaos surrounding her. Her little brother Touma apparently spilled juice on her little sister Moka's uniform, and she was wailing about that. Yoshi couldn't find his camera and was for some reason accusing the dog of taking it. Asame jumped on the animal blame train and said that the cat ran off with her phone charger (which was probably true; Tama was a sucker for long dangly things.)

Her father already left for work, and her mother cooked breakfast with her mp3 player on full blast every morning, always.

To anyone else, this would have been a nightmare to deal with on a daily basis, but for Hinata, it was Zen. She always found a weird peace in having a bunch of commotion going on around her, as long as she wasn't directly involved. That was probably just because she was so used to it, but it made her mornings easily the least stressful of all the Tsuyoshi.

Hair and teeth brushed, Hinata put on her blue school uniform: a simple blue blazer with a blue gingham patterned skirt. Her red glasses and shoes contrasted nicely with all the blue. She grabbed her overly large school bag and gave a weak goodbye to her family before leaving. She doubted anyone heard it but she said it every day anyway.

Hinata made her walk to Wataishi's train station. Its' only train station-a little coastal town like Wataishi didn't need a million trains zipping in and out every day. Her head was slightly bent down and staring at the sidewalk, absent-mindedly counting the cracks in the pavement. It was a dangerous way to walk, but she thought she mastered it by now. Thought being the key word as she crashed spectacularly into a girl with a bike turning a corner.

"Ow ow ouch!" The other girl moaned. Her butt landed on her bike. Hinata paled. Oh, she did it now. Now she was going to have to apologize to this girl. Apologizing meant talking. To a stranger. Talking. Maybe she could run away? Did that count as a hit and run, or was that only with cars? Would the police come after her? Was she too young to go to jail? She needed to find out more about the Japanese judicial system-

"Hello? I said, are you okay?"

The other girl's voice brought Hinata out of her internal panicking, and she finally looked at her. She was a very tall girl, even bent down and peering at Hinata, she could tell. Her eyes were a bluish green, framed by her brown hair, which part of formed a big bow shape on the side of her head, tied with a green ribbon. She was wearing the same uniform Hinata was, except for a cream colored sweater instead of the blazer, so she guessed this girl went to her school.

Hinata thought she was very pretty, but that just made it harder to apologize for running into her. However, through sheer force of will, she managed to mumble, "U-um…I'm, um…sorry…"

The girl dropped her worried look when Hinata finally spoke, and grinned brightly.

"Aw, no big deal! My butt is totally okay! Well, except for the crack."

Crack? Oh no, so she DID hurt this girl? Should she call an ambulance? Oh wait, she left her phone at home…

The girl looked amused at Hinata's panicked expression.

"It was a joke. I'm fine, really. Here." She held out her hand. Hinata stared at it for a moment before grabbing it, and she lifted her up.

"You go to Seiwa High, right? Better get going, you're gonna miss your train!" The girl gave Hinata another grin and a wave before picking her bike up and walking away. Hinata was just confused. Did that girl really bike all the way to Seiwa…?

However, she really had more important things to worry about, like running to her train before those doors closed.

* * *

Today's Episode: A resolute flame protects everyone! Cure Garnet is born!

* * *

"Aquaaaa, my feet hurt and I'm tired and hungry and this bag is heavy and I wanna go hoooooome…" Ruby whined, slumping along behind his older brothers. Jasper tuned him out a long time ago, but Aqua's motherly nature prevented him from such blessings.

"Ruby, please, I'm sure we'll find the Pretty Cure soon."

Jasper stared. "The Pretty-wha?"

"…Weren't you listening to Queen Dia at all?"

"…Define 'all'."

Aqua bonked him on the nose.

_"Jasper Gemmi, Aqua Gemmi, Ruby Gemmi, her Majesty requested your presence half an hour ago." The castle guard was not very happy._

_"Er, well, you see, my brothers were, um….very tired and-"_

_The guard held up a paw. He was not the type of guard to want to hear excuses. The weekend guard was much more relaxed about these kinds of things. He did not like the weekend guard._

_With a thump of his spear the ornate crystal gates to Treasure Castle opened, and the three brothers walked carefully inside, to the Queen's chambers._

_They entered a room filled with color and light, with a throne made of diamond in the center. There sat the ruler of the Treasure Kingdom, Queen Dia, the largest and fluffiest dragon fluff of all the fairies of Treasure Kingdom._

_The brothers bowed immediately, but Queen Dia softly said, "There is no need for that. Jasper. Aqua. Ruby. I called you here seeking your aid."_

_Ruby looked confused. "Don't you have like a whole army? What are we supposed to do? Uh, your majesty?"_

_Queen Dia smiled. "You three are the best teleporters in the kingdom. Especially you, Ruby."_

_Ruby quickly looked away. Aqua looked like he just remembered something extremely unpleasant._

_"You three have the power to traverse the stars themselves, and that is what I need for this mission. I need you three to find the Pretty Cure, on Earth."_

_"What are the Pretty Cure, your Majesty?" Aqua asked._

_"They are legendary warriors, said to be able to defeat any evil that rises up. I fear that we may need that power very soon." Queen Dia looked to each of the brothers._

_"Will you accept this task?"_

"Ooooh, yeah, now I remember!" Jasper said with a goofy smile.

Aqua sighed. "I wish you would act like the older brother sometimes."

"Wha-hey, I so do act like-WHAT IS THAT."

Aqua and Ruby crashed into Jasper, who suddenly stopped. They were walking in a neighborhood, and came to a halt near a gated house. On the other side of the gate a big (to them) dog was staring at them. When they stopped, it started to growl.

"That doesn't sound even remotely friendly. We should go." Aqua said, terror making his voice tremble. The dog barked, and the three of them jumped and ran away like frightened cats.

* * *

"Alright everyone, take out your textbooks and turn to page 45…"

Hinata's history teacher had kind of a droning voice, but that made it really soothing to listen to. She's been known to fall asleep once or ten times during her lecture, but as long as she kept getting top scores, it didn't seem that important. Today though, she didn't feel much like sleeping, or paying attention either. She was still pretty mortified at today's little incident (even more so when she finally got that girl's joke, hours later). She sighed softly and gazed out the window, trying to forget about it. Her thoughts turned to other things, like wondering if she'd finally drop off her application for the Shogi Club, or if she should go to the bookstore to see if they have that new manga, or staring at little multicolored rabbits with wings and bags running around outside- Wait a minute.

She sat up straight and adjusted her glasses as she peered out the glass. There seemed to be three rabbits, one green, one blue, one red, running across the field outside of the school. Two of them were wearing bags. They had wings and horns between them. The bag the little red one was holding looked like it was glowing, and suddenly all three of them turned and looked like they were staring right at her. Hinata fell out of her seat with a sharp gasp, and every pair of eyes in that room was on her in an instant. Her cheeks quickly turned the same color as her glasses.

"Are you alright, Tsuyoshi-san?" the teacher asked.

Hinata thought it would be a really good day for the ground to open up and make her fall to the center of the earth. But of course, that didn't happen, so Hinata just gathered her things and said that she "reallyreallyreallyneededtogotothenurse" and booked it out of there. After she regained some of her composure, she walked towards the nurse's office.

'Those were just ordinary rabbits and I've just been reading too many of Nee-chan's fantasy novels and that's why I imagined dragon rabbit…things,' Hinata thought, nodding once to herself. 'I'll just go take a nap and this day will be better when I wake up.'

"You're sure it was that girl with the glasses?" Aqua asked Ruby as he and Jasper helped him up into the opened window of the school.

"Yeah! It was kinda pointing at her through the bag, like it was trying to come out," Ruby answered, shrugging off his brown sack and taking out what looked like a charm bracelet. There was only one charm on it, a small, sparkling garnet. After a moment it livened up again like before, glowing and tugging against Ruby's paw, trying to escape.

"See! It can lead us to that girl!" Ruby said excitedly. And he accidentally let it go and it started to float away.

"Oh no, get it!" Aqua cried, running after it with his brothers quickly following behind.

"Alright dear, I need to step out for a moment. Feel free to rest all you like."

Hinata nodded at the nurse as she left the office, closing the door behind her. She listened to her heels clacking away and closed her eyes. She was almost on the edge of sleep when she heard a thump on the door. Thinking it was someone trying to get in -maybe the nurse locked the door or something?- she got up and opened the door, and got smacked in the face with a bracelet.

"Ow…What…?" She said, gingerly peeling the bracelet off of her face. The bracelet stopped glowing once she had it in her hand.

"It went that way-Oh! I found her!"

Hinata stared in horror as those dragon rabbit things from earlier came running into the nurse's office. She ran back to the bed. Jasper followed.

"Hey, you must be one of the Pretty Cure! That was easier than-OOPH."

Hinata smacked him with her pillow.

"Hey, hey, whadja do a mean thing like that for? That's Aqua's shtick," Jasper whined.

Aqua rolled his eyes and flew onto the bed.

"You don't have to be scared. We came to find you because-"

"You're a legendary warrior! How cool is that?" Ruby said with glee as he leaped onto the bed.

Hinata thought she must be going into shock, or having one of those weird dreams where you think you're awake but you're really sleeping.

"Are…you dreams?" She finally said, after an uncomfortable silence.

Jasper looked oddly at her. "No, we're fairies! From the Treasure Kingdom! I'm Jasper, and these are my little brothers, Aqua, and Ruby." He pointed to each of them.

"Pleasure to meet you." Aqua did a little bow.

"Do you have magic powers? Can you make somebody's head blow up with your MIND?!" Ruby jumped up and down excitedly.

"I'm…not dreaming?" Hinata tilted her head as she thought. A dream or not a dream… If she ignored how freaky this all was, she guessed…it was kind of cool. These fairies were cute, and the red one said she was a "legendary warrior". Yeah, right, her? It was an interesting delusion, if anything else.

"Heck no! If you're dreaming then I'm dreaming and I know I'm not dreaming because this dream is way too cool for the kind of dumb dreams I have!" Ruby said.

"…Ok then. I'm willing to listen." Somehow, it was much easier to talk to these little furballs than to people. "Sorry, I didn't introduce myself…I'm Tsuyoshi Hinata."

Jasper fluffed himself up and said, "Nice to meet you, Hinata! We'll tell you everything you need to know!...Aqua, tell her everything she needs to know."

"Gladly." Aqua cleared his throat. "Our majesty of the Treasure Kingdom, Queen Dia, tasked us three to find you, and five other girls on this planet who are the Pretty Cure. Pretty Cure are warriors of legend who fight evil. You are one of them, apparently. And that-" he pointed to the charm bracelet still in Hinata's hand. "Is a Kira Kira Charmy. It allows you to transform into your Cure alter ego to fight."

"…You mean that charm bracelet?"

"What's a 'charm bracelet'? That's definitely a Kira Kira Charmy."

Aqua and Hinata both looked completely lost. Before she could ask any more questions, the sound of the nurse's high heels came closer and closer the door.

"Quick, hide!" Aqua said to his brothers, and they scurried away somewhere. Hinata shoved the Kira Kira Charmy into her blazer pocket.

"Feeling better?" The nurse asked.

"U-um, yes, I'll go back to, um, class now, thank you," Hinata said, gathering up her bag.

She thought she heard an 'oomph' sound when she picked it up, but ignored it.

* * *

"Aw, Neon, are you sure you want to go first?" Krylie asked with a pout, her two round pigtails bobbing along with every movement of her head.

"We really don't mind, you know," her twin, Florine said, her one round pony tail staying perfectly in place.

The young man they were talking to, Neon, just shook his head once. His thin form drowned in the huge grey and blue cloak he wore, covering him almost completely, his large blue boots covering what was left. A long, long blue scarf around his neck hung down to his stomach, with four closed eyes on the end, and four oval shapes dangling from the tip.

"I'm sure I will be quick. Please don't worry yourselves over it," he said in his soft, soothing voice. The three were sitting at a wooden table, in a plain, unfurnished house that was long abandoned, but very clean. Neon saw to that as soon as they all moved in. It was nestled in an abandoned lot surrounded by a sea of similar old houses and trees and weeds and trash.

Neon stood up from his chair and hugged the two girls goodbye, and left the house.

He didn't bother changing into his civilian form, there weren't any people around and he didn't think this would last long enough to bother anyway. He kept walking through the lot until something caught his eye: an abandoned toy train lying in one of the many piles of garbage. Neon walked over and picked it up, and his scarf's eyes opened up one by one.

The eyes were an angry red, and the oval's morphed into sharp teeth-like points. The scarf moved of its own accord and sank its fangs into the train, and Neon stepped back as it started thrashing around wildly, growing larger and larger in size. A dark face with blue eyes and spiked mouth formed at the front of the train, and tree trunk sized limbs burst out of its underside. Rearing up on its hind legs, it bellowed in a baritone, "MOGU MOGUNNAAAA" , and started its stomping steps out of the lot and towards the city, Neon following behind with a carefully blank face.

* * *

The teacher announced that classes were over for today, and Hinata was so, so happy. She just wanted to go home and sleep for a thousand years. She took one step outside the school and Ruby poked his head out of her bag.

"Finally! I've been waiting FOR EVER. Whatcha got to eat?"

Hinata just stared. "You…you were in my bag this whole time?"

Aqua and Jasper popped up too.

"Ruby, manners."

"Ugh, fine. Whatcha got to eat, _please_."

Hinata just sighed and continued to walk; thanking her ability to blend into crowds effortlessly so no one noticed the rabbit-things sticking out of her bag.

As she got closer to the train station, she noticed there was a mass of people off in the distance looking really freaked out and running away from something.

"Hey, hey, what's going on over there?" Jasper asked, a little worried. He got his question answered when a demonic-looking train monster came into view. It opened its huge mouth and seemed to be absorbing tiny white lights from the bodies of the people who were crying or yelling in terror. When the light left them, they just slumped over, as if asleep.

The brothers jumped up and out of Hinata's bag at the scene, all looking very tense.

"That monster took their Crystal Hearts!" Aqua cried in shock.

"Then…is that the evil Queen Dia was talking about? The Helminth?" Ruby asked with a shaking voice.

"What are you guys talking about?!" Hinata said suddenly, quite sure this was the loudest she ever spoke in her life. "What's going on? What is that thing? What did it do to those people?"

"It's evil! It's the evil monster the Pretty Cure has to beat up!"

Hinata stared at Ruby, and shook her head.

"You guys…expect me to fight that? I can't! It's huge!" She started to tear up. All she wanted to do was go home and sleep.

The monster absorbed another batch of Crystal Hearts, and more and more people fell.

That just made Hinata cry more. Jasper looked up at her.

"You know what those lights are? They're Crystal Hearts. I don't know all the details, but I know everyone's got 'em, and if they get taken away, something really bad happens to you.

"Something…bad?" Her mind ran at a million miles a minute trying to figure out what that 'something bad' was. She clenched her hands together as she watched the terrified people run away, the people that had their Crystal Hearts stolen laying all over the ground, the chaos the monster was leaving in its wake. She hated this. She wanted to make things better. She wanted to defeat the monster and save everyone, even if she was just a weak little kid.

The Kira Kira Charmy in her pocket started glowing.

"Hinata! Hinata, get the Kira Kira Charmy so you can transform!" Ruby urged.

She just accepted it; there wasn't time anymore to question all this weirdness going on today. She took out the bracelet as she was told and, as if moving on instinct, slipped it on her wrist and shouted, "Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

That's when the weirdness level for today reached its peak. Gone was the city around her, replaced with a red void filled with sparkles. The Kira Kira Charmy enveloped her in a red diamond shaped flame, and she closed her eyes, her mouth slightly opened, a peaceful expression on her face. A red, knee length dress with a wide-brimmed bottom appeared with a flash on her body, trimmed with purple ruffles and ribbons set with garnets around the waist and chest, a pink undershirt with short, pointed sleeves resembling wings. Pink gloves with purple ribbons appeared on her hands, and with another flash knee-length boots formed, matching the color scheme of her dress. Her glasses transformed into red goggles, and her hair turned pink, the longer bangs on either side of her face turning into long thin spirals, her pigtails lengthening down to her knees and split into three diamond shaped sections, each held with a purple ribbon. To complete it, a simple red choker formed on her neck.

She sank into a fetal position as the fire around her solidified into a real garnet. When it closed her in completely, her eyes shot open and she sprang up, fists breaking through the gemstone, causing it to explode into a thousand glittering pieces. Apparently, it was holding her up, as she started to fall to the ground. She stumbled lightly when she reached the bottom, but quickly righted herself. She reached towards the sky with both hands, Kira Kira Charmy on her wrist glinting, and made fists, bringing them both down in a determined pose.

"A resolute flame will protect everyone! The red crystal, Cure Garnet!"

Her transformation complete, Cure Garnet was back in the real world.

"What, what, what?! When did you change your clothes? How did you do that in two seconds?!" Jasper gaped at Garnet.

Ruby hopped on Jasper head and said, "Who cares about all that boring stuff! All that matters is that she's Garnet now and she can kick that monster's butt!"

Garnet nodded.

"I won't…I won't let that thing hurt these people!" she said determinedly before she leapt into action. And promptly freaked out.

"HOW DID I JUMP SO HIGH GET ME DOWN!"

Both Neon and the Mogunna turned to look at the source of the screaming. Neon grimaced when he saw her.

"I didn't know we would be fighting children," he said under his breath. He gave a soft sigh, and steeled himself.

"Mogunna, get her!"

"MOGUNNNNAAA!"

The Mogunna aimed for Garnet with a massive arm, and gave her a punch that set her flying into a train below, leaving a huge dent in it. Jasper and his brothers ran over to her immediately.

"Garnet, you okay?" Jasper asked worriedly.

"Well, I'm not dead, so I'm pretty good." Garnet got up and shook herself off. The pain at least reinforced in her mind that this definitely wasn't a dream. The Mogunna was on her on an instant, launching a flurry of punches that Garnet just managed to dodge.

"Ya gotta attack too, Garnet!" Ruby called.

'Attack, attack…like a punch?'

When Garnet evaded another punch, instead of moving away again she launched herself at the Mogunna's chest, punching it right in the center. The force caused it to fall on its back, crushing a train in the impact.

"W-wow…When did I get buff?" Garnet mumbled, inspecting her arm.

"Hurry and finish it off!" Jasper, Aqua, and Ruby all yelled in unison.

"Ah, r-right!" Garnet's Kira Kira Charmy glowed and enveloped her hands in a red light. She threw her hands forward, palms up, and cried,

"Pretty Cure, Fiery Valor!"

Fiery diamond shaped light flew out of her hands, surrounding the fallen Mogunna, until it was completely enveloped in it.

"Mogu….Mogunna…" it cried weakly, before exploding in a flash white light, and disappearing. A child's toy train lay in its wake. The Crystal Hearts it absorbed floated out of it, back into the still bodies of their owners. One by one they stirred awake, looking around confusedly.

Neon glanced at the train, then to the girl who beat it, who was currently staring at her hands at shock. This wasn't right. Why were they fighting children? He shook his head. No. Children or not, no one could get in their way. He snuck away into the shadows, the confusion of the scene distracting anyone from noticing him.

"Garnet! YOU WERE SO COOL!" Ruby yelled, jumping into Garnet's lap.

"You were really amazing," Aqua agreed, smiling up at her.

The people around them started to smile and cheer, happy that the monster was defeated. A strange glittering powder wafted from their chests, from their hearts, into the air. Seeing this, Aqua nudged Jasper.

"Get out the Glitter Jar, please."

"The what-oh yeah, that heavy thing!" Jasper nodded and shrugged off the bag he had on his back. He pulled out a small white ceramic jar, plain except for the golden diamond shapes inset along the sides and one big on at the tip that served as the handle. When he popped the top open, the powder started filing inside of the jar.

"So, I'm sure you're wondering what this is, and-" Aqua started, turning to Garnet. She already transformed back into Hinata, and was sprawled on the ground, deep asleep and snoring away.

"Wha-hey, you can't fall asleep here! Hinata? Hinata!"

* * *

Hinata: This might be a little sudden, but I was wondering, how do you get your fur to be so shiny, Jasper?

Jasper: Easy! I just shampoo my fur every other day with a star's tears and dry in the sun during a solar eclipse!

Hinata: Star's tears…? We don't have anything like that on Earth…

Ruby: What? Next you'll be saying you don't have Gem Bites!

Hinata: Um, I'm pretty sure we don't have those either…

Ruby & Jasper: What kind of backwater planet is this?!

Aqua: Don't we have more important things to talk about…?

**Hinata: Next time on Crystal Hearts Pretty Cure: "A Kind Breeze Makes Everyone Smile! Cure Peridot is Born!" **


	2. A Kind Breeze Makes Everyone Smile!

"Hi-na-ta~! It's time to wake up!"

That was weird-her mom hasn't come to wake her up for school since she was a little kid…Maybe that was her sister? No, Asame wouldn't bother with that; she knows she can wake up by herself…

"Hinata! Get up, please!"

Hinata felt like she just got buried alive, and flew up from her bed, blearily opening her eyes. Rather than dirt, she was covered in her collection of stuffed animals, with Jasper, Aqua, and Ruby sitting at the foot of her bed. Aqua's gem was faintly glowing. Jasper turned to his brother and pouted.

"What, so she gets special treatment? Why didn't you throw books and rocks at _her_ to wake her up?"

Aqua rolled his eyes but otherwise didn't deign him with an answer.

"Sorry about that, Hinata. But according to your clock, you seem to be running a bit late this morning?"

Hinata's eyes moved to her bedside clock, a cute little figurine of one of her favorite anime characters she ordered in the back of a manga. The red numbers laughed at her.

"Oh no, I'm gonna be late!" She threw the covers off of her, sending both stuffed animal and fairy flying.

* * *

This was unreal-Hinata had never woken up late in her life. She held herself to a very specific schedule and like it or not, her body was a slave to it. It made no sense-Oh.

She started to remember yesterday's events. Transforming into her superpowered alter ego and taking down that train monster…And saving all those people. She gave herself a little smile and she shrugged on her school blazer. When she picked up her school bag, she heard a voice from inside.

"Hey, be a little gentler!"

She paused, and peeked inside. All three brothers were inside, staring back at her.

"What's up?" Jasper said, as if he were talking about the weather.

"You're really coming with me to school?"

Aqua nodded. Well, as much as he could in that small space.

"Queen Dia told us to look after you too, not just find you. We have to keep a constant watch to make sure-"  
"Hinata-chaaaan! Are you ready yet? I'm taking you to school so hurry up!"

At the sound of her mother's voice Hinata quickly shut her bag, ignoring the brothers' protests, and made her way down the stairs. She looked around before she saw her mother, Hitoe, in the kitchen, finishing up a batch of toast. Her dark hair was held up in a messy bun, and her eyes were sleepy but alert.

"Um, you're taking me, Mama?" she asked.

"Oh, Hinata-chan! Finally. You're never late; everyone else left already," She looked at her daughter worriedly. "Are you sure you feel better?"

Yesterday, after they finally woke her up, Ruby transported everyone back to Hinata's house, she mumbled something to her mother about feeling sick and promptly slept all day.

"I'm fine, Mama, I just needed to, um, sleep," she said.

Hitoe clicked her tongue. "Well, if you're sure. Anyway, I guess you missed it since you were sleeping so long, but there's been some sort of accident at the train station, so they're closed down. I'll be taking you to school in the meantime, since that's way too far away for you to walk."

Hinata made a garbled sound that led to a series of coughs and another assurance that she's _fine, really_. She grabbed a piece of toast from the counter and went to the car before any more questions to her health could be asked. She remembered that dent she made in the train, and anxiously wondered if that could be traced back to her somehow.

Soon they were both in the car and on their way, passing house after house until they were finally out of the residential district and on the main road. Hinata stared absentmindedly out of the window, thoughts still filled with worry about yesterday's events.

A flash of beige and blue brought her out of her daze, and she peered out with more concentration. She rubbed her eyes, because she must have been seeing things; there's no way she was looking at that brown-haired girl from the other day, in the bike path on the other side of the road, pumping furiously on the pedals and somehow keeping up with a car.

"Whoaaa, she's fast!" Ruby whispered. He snuck out of Hinata's bag at some point and was staring out of the window with her.

"Did you say something, Hinata-chan?" Hitoe asked from the front.

"N-nothing, no!" she answered, flustered, and grabbed Ruby and stuffed him back into the bag, ignoring his muffled protests.

* * *

**Today's episode: A kind breeze makes everyone smile! Cure Peridot is born!**

* * *

"Alright, it's a free day today, so pair up and play something!"

Hinata sat in the back of the gym, back propped up against the wall. How could she forget they had gym today? She should have just said she was sick…

She left her bag in the classroom, giving the brothers a chance to stretch since it was empty at this time, but now she was kind of regretting it. It would have been nice to have company. Just as she thought that, she saw a pair of feet come walking in front of her. Well, she looked up and saw that they were connected to a person. Namely, the brown-haired bike girl.

"Hey, hey!" she greeted. "I didn't know you were in my class!"

Hinata moved her mouth slightly but no words came out. Nonplussed, the girl went on.

"I didn't come to school yesterday, cuz I was so into going super-fast on my bike I totally missed the school by a mile or two! I just skipped after that. Too bad, cuz we could have met properly already!"

Hinata made a vague sound of agreement.

"Oh, I forgot! My name is Iyori Fuuka. What's yours?"

Swallowing, Hinata looked away and mumbled, "Uhm…Tsuyoshi…Hinata…"

"Ah, okay! Hinata-san, then!" Fuuka plopped down next to her. "Can I call you Hinata-san? You can call me Fuuka if you want!"

"Hmmmfhdmfok…"

Fuuka looked at the other girl for a moment before saying softly, "Sorry, am I bothering you? I didn't mean to-you just looked lonely over here by yourself, so I thought you might want some company."

"N-no!" Hinata said suddenly, turning around but still not able to really look her in the eye. "U-um, I'm sorry…That was nice of you…I'm glad you came over, um, Fuuka-san."

Fuuka brightened up at that. "Oh, good! I was worried you were thinking 'man I wish this girl would shut up already and leave me alone!' but was too nice to say anything, haha."

Hinata managed to give an awkward little laugh she hoped sounded genuine enough.

"So, hey, wanna partner up with me?"

Hindsight is 20/20. Hinata should have made up some excuse and said no, but she really didn't want to turn down social interaction when it so elegantly wrapped it up with a bow and left it on her lap. Every game they played, basketball, softball, volleyball, soccer, all ended with Fuuka apologizing and Hinata nursing a sore nose. She probably should have mentioned that she wasn't good at anything involving a ball. Or a stick. Or moving people. She just wasn't good at anything physical, really. After the fifth time of being beamed in the face, Fuuka suggested that they hang out on the bleachers and talk instead. Hinata and her poor nose thought this was a great idea.

"So, what do you like to do?" Fuuka began. "I'm like, really, really into gymnastics. I go to competitions and win all the time and I'm basically the best at it."

Hinata wished she could be that confident. She was about to respond with her own hobbies, but paused as she realized they were all horribly nerdy compared to something cool and glamorous like…all that twirling and flipping that gymnasts do. Oh, but there was that one…

"I, um, I like to play shogi."

"Oh, that's really cool! That's a bit too complicated for me though; I'll stick to flips." Fuuka gave a laugh that was so nice and filled Hinata with warmth and made her cheeks light up a bit.

"Are you in the Shogi Club then?"

Well, that ruined it. Hinata grimaced a little before explaining.

"I….no…I want to but…I'm not really good with people…I'm too scared to even submit the application."

Fuuka smiled again. "Well, you're talking to me now! I'm sure you'll be able to join one day. I'll root for you!"

Hinata wanted to say that it most likely wasn't because she herself jumped over some emotional hurdles that she was able to talk to Fuuka even remotely like a normal human being, but rather because Fuuka was one of those kind people who made talking to them the easiest thing in the world, even for people like herself who cowered at the thought of conversation with strangers.

Before she could respond, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

"Aw, that was quick," Fuuka pouted. "Hey, hey, wanna hang out after school? We can go to an arcade!"  
Kind of feeling like this was all a dream or a practical joke, Hinata just nodded.

After gym, Hinata felt like she was on cloud nine, like she could do anything, like even submit that application to the Shogi Club. But when she was in front of the club submissions wall, staring at the folder for club applications, she got cold feet. Thinking about having to talk to so many strangers gave her hives.

'Well, whatever,' she thought, folding her application into her pocket. 'Like Fuuka-san said, I'm sure I'll be able to do this eventually.'

* * *

"A kid?" Florine and Krylie repeated at the same time, sharing twin looks of disbelief between them. Neon sighed and swirled the tea Krylie made for him. It wasn't very good. He took a sip anyway.

"Yes," he replied. "Did Gallium tell either of you two we'd be fighting children?"

"I don't think Gallium knew either. I'm sure he would have told us," Florine said.

"But it doesn't matter either way, right? They're the enemy, so we have to destroy them. Simple," Krylie said, shrugging her bare shoulders. Despite her easy tone she looked a little put off.

Florine leaned over the table and put a gloved hand on Neon's shoulder.

"If it bothers you, we can go this time, you know."

Neon shook his head.

"I can still do it. You don't have to worry about me."

The twins worried even more.

* * *

As the end of school approached, Hinata stared desperately at the clock. Apparently Fuuka sat across the room from her, but she never noticed. She was never really good at learning more about her classmates. Actually, she was pretty sure she didn't know any of their names. She made a mental note to try to fix that. Eventually.

Finally, the bell rang and Hinata sprang up. But then felt embarrassed and quickly sank back down. Luckily she didn't have to decide how she was going to approach her, as Fuuka took care of that, walking over to Hinata's desk.

"Ready?" she asked, shrugging on her cute green cat shaped backpack.

"O-oh! Yeah," Hinata said, adjusting her glasses nervously.

"Alrighty, let's go!" Fuuka turned on her heel and lead Hinata out of the classroom.

"Oh…Fuuka-san?" Hinata said once they reached the bike racks. "I just remembered, the trains are, um, down. I could ask my mother to take us-"

"Oh, no need, no need! We'll take this!" Fuuka pointed at her green bike. Hinata swallowed, remembering the scene from this morning.

"Is…Is it safe for two people to ride at the same time?"

Fuuka paused for a long moment before answering.

"…Sure it is!"

She hopped on the bike and motioned for Hinata to get on the back. Hinata was quite sure this was both stupid and dangerous but that didn't stop her for even a minute. After sending a text to her mom saying where she was going, she carefully climbed on the bike, sitting sideways on the rack behind the seat.

"Here we go!" And they shot off like a rocket, Hinata screaming and clinging to Fuuka's waist for dear life.

* * *

Hinata's vocal cords hurt. She worried that Jasper and his brothers turned into soup with how fast they were going (upon inspection they were still asleep. Hinata has never been more scared of them). She didn't think her hair would ever stand down again. Fuuka was totally fine. Hinata had suspicions that she wasn't human.

They stopped in front of Wataishi's local arcade and bowling alley, Star Room. Hinata was very familiar with this place; she used to tag along with Asame here all the time when she was younger.

"I have to admit, I don't go to these kinds of places much," Fuuka said, grinning ruefully. "But it's always fun to try something new, right?"

"Y...yeah. Actually," Hinata started, taking in the familiar sights of the cabinets. "I used to come here a lot…Um, with my sister, not by myself."

"Oh, really! Then show me the ropes, yeah?" Fuuka made a dramatic bow and flourished her arms to the entrance. "After you, o masterful one."

Hinata made a squeaky awkward laugh and rubbed the back of her neck as she went inside, Fuuka on her tail. Star Room was one of the few public places Hinata didn't freak out at being at, probably because it was never too populated and the people who were there were usually little kids or old people, and she dealt with them much easier than people her age. She spotted a familiar game: a simple thing where you're a tiny triangle shooting at lumpy circles in space, and walked over to it while Fuuka went to get coins.

"Mmgn…are we back at your house yet?" Hinata heard Ruby sleepily ask from the depths of her bag.

"O-oh, Ruby, no…I'm at an arcade," she apologized. Ruby perked his ears up at that and stuck his head out of the bag.

"What's an arcade? Whoa, there're a lot of colors in here. Kinda looks like my house back in the Treasure Kingdom. Hey, what're those glowing boxes? Oh, something smells good; Hinata, is it time to eat yet-"

"Ruby, Ruby please go back to sleep. I'll feed you later," Hinata begged.

"But I'm up now and Jasper keeps drooling on me and Aqua keeps kicking me and it's really cramped in here and I keep getting smashed by your books and-"

Ruby's complaining got cut short. Hinata saw Fuuka start to come back and quickly smashed Ruby back into her bag, closing it shut before he could pop back out. Fuuka looked at her oddly when she reached her.

"Uh…everything alright with that bag of yours?" she asked, handing Hinata a roll of coins.

"Wh-what? Oh, yes, bag, fine, really, thank you," Hinata stuttered out, really hoping Fuuka didn't see a magic rabbit dragon fairy thing sticking out of it.

"Um, let's play?"

When Hinata said she came here a lot, she meant _a lot_. Almost every game in the arcade had her initials in the high score list (after she finally sheepishly admitted that they were hers once they saw the same kanji every single time Hinata got another high score). Fuuka wasn't really that good at first, but she was a fast learner. She was miles behind even coming close to being as great as Hinata was, but she stopped getting a game over within thirty seconds of starting.

After an hour of playing, they took a break at the snack bar.

"I'm really glad I picked this place," Fuuka said after chugging a bottle of water. "I kinda had a feeling you'd be good at video games."

"You…picked this place for me?" Hinata asked, suddenly feeling terribly embarrassed. "That's…you're really kind, Fuuka-san."

Fuuka looked shocked for a moment, and then her expression became soft. She smiled warmly at Hinata, much smaller and contained than her other energized ones.

"Thank you. That means a lot to me."

Hinata was confused at her words, but she couldn't dwell on them for very long because that warm, fluttering sensation came back full force deep in her belly. It wasn't important, she decided. After all the weirdness that's happened, she just wanted to enjoy herself today.

* * *

A young man with long brown hair covering one grey eye, dressed in a plain blue turtleneck, grey slacks, and a long blue scarf walked into the Star Room, completely blending in with the crowd. He wandered around the arcade section, glancing at each cabinet until a suitable one caught his eye. Approaching it, he tapped once at his scarf, and it started to grow steel fang like appendages at its end. It shot into the cabinet, sinking its fangs into it. All at once, the cabinet started growing in size, the same blue face and limbs forming just like the train monster from the other day. Immediately, the patrons of the Star Room started scattering, running for the door.

"MOGUNNNNA," The creature bellowed, opening its gaping maw to suck Crystal Hearts from those unlucky enough to not get away in time. In the midst of all the chaos, the young man snapped his fingers and his wardrobe changed, revealing himself to be Neon.

"I won't fail this time," he said determinedly under his breath.

* * *

Hinata stared dumbly at the Mogunna. Didn't she already defeat one of these yesterday? How many of them were there? She started to feel a little sick.

Jasper and Aqua woke up from all the commotion, and poked their heads out of Hinata's bag, along with Ruby.

" Uh-oh," they all said in unison.

Fuuka grabbed Hinata's arm.

"W-we gotta run!" she said frantically, unable to take her eyes off the rampaging monster.

"You have to transform!" Aqua said, equally frantic.

Fuuka shook her head. "No, we have to run, you don't have time to trans- Wait what."

She looked down at Hinata's bag, and three pairs of eyes stared back.

"Hi," said Jasper.

Fuuka just blinked.

"Fuuka-san, um, please don't be weirded out," Hinata said, before lifting up her wrist.

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

Where Hinata was once standing, Cure Garnet was in her place. Fuuka's brain short circuited and she just rolled with it.

"S-so you're a superhero and you're gonna fight that thing, h-huh?" she asked, her voice going up an octave. Garnet paused a moment, nodded, and jumped towards the Mogunna.

"I…I was having a really good time before you showed up," Garnet said in the angriest voice she could muster.

The Mogunna stopped to consider her.

"Mogunna?" it said questioningly.

"So...You better stop doing that…thing you're doing with those Crystal Hearts or whatever, and…and stop destroying everything right now or I'll beat you up!"

The Mogunna looked at her for a second longer before slamming its arm into her.

"Ok, mental note, talking is useless," Garnet muttered to herself as she picked herself up from where she landed. She ran back to the Mogunna, and threw a punch, but before it could connect she was knocked back again. And again.

The next time it happened, she got thrown to where Fuuka and the brothers were.

"H-hey, are you ok?" Fuuka asked, voice strained. Garnet got up and shook herself off before replying.

"I'm fine. Please…run away while I distract it!"

"I can't just leave you here!" Fuuka shot back, but Garnet was already gone.

"If you forfeit now, I'll make it go away," Neon said, as Garnet blocked a punch from the Mogunna.

"Wh-what?" She said. "Who are you?"

"Someone who will hurt you, unless you give up," he said back. "Agree to stop being a Pretty Cure, and you won't have to fight."

Garnet had to admit, it was a little tempting, if this weirdo was telling the truth. It was getting old, getting punched by this monster over and over again. But when she saw all those people with their Crystal Hearts stolen, lifeless, and how Fuuka might join them, she knew she couldn't back down.

"I…I refuse!" She said finally. "I don't care if I get punched a hundred times…I won't give up!"

Neon looked incredibly disappointed with her answer.

"So be it," he said. "Mogunna, go."

"MOGUNNAAA!" The Mogunna grabbed Garnet up, squeezing her with a gnarled blue fist.

"Garnet!" The brothers cried in unison. Garnet didn't look too good, face going pale.

Fuuka acted without thinking, picking up a nearby chair and hurling it at the Mogunna with all her might. Though it didn't leave so much as a scratch, it turned around anyway, looking confusedly around. Fuuka threw another chair, hitting it square in the face, the shock causing it to drop Garnet. Aqua quickly used his magic to catch her before she fell to the ground, and levitated her back to the group. She was breathing shallowly, eyes closed.

"You leave her alone!" she yelled, readying another chair.

Ruby's bag began to glow.

"You think you can stop it with a few chairs?" Neon asked.

"If chairs won't work, I'll throw bowling balls!" Fuuka shot back immediately. "I won't let you hurt Hinata-san anymore!"

Something began tugging furiously inside of Ruby's bag, finally getting his attention. He slipped it off his back and opened it up, and a Kira Kira Charmy with a peridot hanging from it immediately flew up from the bag, smacking Fuuka in the face.

"Okay, ow. What the heck is this?" Fuuka said, peeling the bracelet off her cheek.

Aqua gasped. "You're a Pretty Cure, too?"

"A Pretty-wha?"

Jasper started flailing his arms around.

"WHO CARES JUST PUT IT ON HURRY BEFORE THAT THING GETS US ALL!"

"Aw, geez, okay, okay!" Fuuka put the Kira Kira Charmy on her wrist.

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

Her world exploded into a green sparkly void. Light green wind flowed from her Kira Kira Charmy, surrounding her in diamond shaped cyclone. She closed her eyes and a bright smile formed on her lips as the wind spun her around. A short, puffy green skirt appeared on her with an exaggerated flourish, along with a puffy sleeved green cropped top with cerise lace going up the front, ending at her chest where a cerise ribbon formed, a small peridot in the center. Green knee-length boots covering knee-length cerise tights came next, and with that a large cerise ribbon tied around her waist. A pair of fingerless gloves with cerise ribbons matching the puffiness of her skirt and a green choker around her neck completed her outfit.

Her hair turned green and grew longer, brushing her shoulder blades, and her bow shaped lock of hair turned into a large diamond shaped pigtail, a cerise ribbon holding it in place. When this was done, the cyclone unraveled and led her gently down to the ground, twirling her all the while. She landed primly on her feet, and opened her eyes, which were now green. She lifted her hand up in a mock salute with a wink, grinning playfully.

"A kind breeze makes everyone smile! The green crystal, Cure Peridot!"

Fuuka stopped posing and threw her hands into the air.

"THAT. WAS. AMAZING!"

"Um, Peridot, if you could stop cheering for one moment. We still have a problem," Aqua said, pointing at the Mogunna.

"Oh, yeah, right! I'm on it!"

"Another one?" Neon muttered, annoyed. " Mogunna, attack!"

"MOGU-"

Before the Mogunna could finish its war cry, Peridot was on it in an instant, landing a fierce kick to its face.

"Whoa, she's so fast!" Ruby said admiringly.

"What who's fast," Garnet said, finally recovering enough to pick herself up. "Wait…who is that?"

"It's Cure Peridot! Your friend's a Pretty Cure too!" Ruby said, excited.

Garnet lifted her eyebrows in surprise and watched Peridot beat the living day lights out of the Mogunna. It just couldn't get a hit in, Peridot was so quick. Garnet numbly wondered how fast Peridot could ride a bike, if she would be able to break the sound barrier.

Probably.

With one last swift kick, the Mogunna finally fell down for the count.

"Now for the finishing blow, right?" Peridot said with a cheeky smile. She backflipped away from the Mogunna and opened her arms wide, then threw them outwards while shouting,

"Pretty Cure, Windy Smile!"

A gust of green diamond shaped light burst out of her arms, wrapping the struggling Mogunna in the cyclone. It squeezed it until it exploded in a bright light, defeated, and turned back into the arcade cabinet. The tiny lights of the Crystal Hearts poured out from it, returning to their proper places.

Without needing prompting this time, Jasper took out the Glitter Jar, absorbing the dusty powder coming off the Crystal Hearts.

"Waaaah, that was kinda fun!" Peridot said, rushing over to Garnet. "You're okay, right?"

"Y…yeah. You did good," Garnet said sheepishly. Peridot was taking this a lot better than she had.

"Whoa, really? Did I look super cool?" Peridot struck a dumb pose. Garnet laughed.

"Yeah, super cool."

"Is no one going to compliment me on how quickly I brought out the Glitter Jar?" Jasper said indignantly. "Aqua didn't even have to tell me to this time." Aqua sighed.

"What is that thing, anyway?" Garnet asked.

"And why are you guys talking rabbits with magical charm bracelets and why did that weird guy attack us and why did I get this cool outfit with magical powers?" Peridot rushed out in one breath.

"Well, the Glitter Jar is a tool that collects Glitter Dust. It's a substance that comes from Crystal Hearts when its owner experiences happiness. Queen Dia told us to collect it," Aqua explained.

"And we're not rabbits! We're fairies! From the Treasure Kingdom!" Ruby said.

"Queen Dia? Fairies? Treasure Kingdom? Crystal Hearts?" Peridot looked even more lost.

Aqua cleared his throat. "Maybe we should continue this discussion elsewhere."

It suddenly hit them that they were two girls standing in a destroyed arcade wearing weird getups talking to a bunch of freaky animals. They were starting to get stares from the few people who were still around.

"Uh, yeah, good idea," Peridot agreed, and Ruby teleported them away once they transformed back into their civilian forms.

They popped back into existence floating above Hinata's bed, hovering for a moment before collapsing in a heap.

"Teleporting…not my favorite way to travel," Fuuka joked weakly, rolling off Ruby, who looked like a furry pancake.

Hinata picked the other two brothers off her chest and slowly sat up, staring at Fuuka. Fuuka caught her eye and Hinata looked away, embarrassed for staring.

"Something wrong? Does your stomach hurt from that monster squeezing you?" she asked. Hinata shook her head.

"No, I'm okay…For some reason I don't really get hurt when I'm, um, a Cure." She was silent for a moment. "I just…I'm glad I don't have to do this by myself."

Fuuka smiled at that. "Same here! I think I'd go bonkers having this all happen to me on my own. Speaking of which-"She turned to the Gemmi brothers (Ruby was trying desperately to fluff himself back up).

"You guys got some explaining to do."

Ruby's stomach grumbled suddenly, and he whined. "Can we eat first? I'm starving!"

* * *

Neon numbly trudged back to headquarters; now back in his real form with the threat of passerby seeing him gone since he was in the abandoned lot. A soft breeze fluttered his light blue hair around his face, and he looked so worn out and tired, despite his young features. He gripped his hands into fists, nails digging into his flesh. Looking like he was about to cry but with no tears coming out, he desperately thought to himself,

'Gallium…isn't there any other way to save our home?'

* * *

Fuuka: Why does putting on a skirt give me the power to shoot laser beams? Not that I'm complaining!

Ruby: 'Cuz it's a MAGIC skirt, duh!

Aqua: And they're not laser beams. They're your emotions converted into a physical form and amplified by the power of the Kira Kira Charmy and-

Jasper: Blah blah blah, no matter how you say it, they're basically magic laser beams.

Fuuka: That is so awesome. I'm so awesome.

**Fuuka: Next time on Crystal Hearts Pretty Cure: "A Soft and Gentle Love is the Strongest! Cure Petal is Born!"**


	3. A Soft and Gentle Love is the Strongest!

At four a.m., Fuuka started her day, waking up a moment before her alarm clock blazed out with fun, poppy music that always got her energized. She pulled her green and blue kitty cat comforter off with a dramatic flair and hopped up from the bed in all her kitty pajama-clad glory. In ten minutes she was already fresh and ready to go, now dressed in a plain green track suit.

Downstairs, her mother was awake, groggily sipping a mug of tea. She was a tall, thin woman with a pretty face and long brown hair hanging down to her shoulders and what looked like dried paint covering her hands. Another woman was next to her, dressed in a blue tracksuit similar to Fuuka's, making shakes in a blender. She was short and stout, with short black hair and a round, cheerful face. Her arms were thick and muscular, and made her look like she could bench press a tractor.

"Morning, Fuuka-chan!" the women said at the same time, one perky, and the other with a yawn.

"Morning!" she said back cheerfully, eyeing the shakes. "Hehe, no more raw eggs, right, Bura-chan?"

Bura sniffled dramatically. " I can't believe I didn't know they caused a biotin deficiency! Maybe I should take some time off from the shop and study more about nutrition…"

Fuuka's mother shook her head. "You know you're the only mechanic there worth their salt, Bu-chan. Your brother would be lost if you didn't show up even one day."

"Aw, geez, Satchan, you're making me blush." Bura stuck out her tongue and rubbed the back of her head.

"Ugh, your guys' flirting is grosser than the raw eggs," Fuuka teased, sticking her tongue out. Both women coughed awkwardly.

"Right, so Fuuka-chan, the protein shakes are done! Ready to go on our jog?" Bura said.

"Super ready!" Fuuka was already out the door with Bura trailing behind. Their routine was to run to the nearby elementary school and go around the track a couple times, then come back home to drink a shake and eat an absurdly well-balanced breakfast.

"Fuuka-chan," Bura said as they jogged at an easy pace side by side. "I heard that you made a new friend the other day from Satchan."

Fuuka recalled the weird events from yesterday, and the even weirder explanation she got afterwards.

_Luckily, Hinata's mother got back home a little after the girls and the Gemmi brothers did, so that avoided some awkward conversations she didn't want to have. After a quick explanation that Fuuka was her new friend from school, and that she wanted to hang out with her for a while in her room, Hitoe just looked starry eyed at Fuuka and sent the girls up with a tray of snacks. She was just so happy her little girl finally got herself a friend, but she had enough tact to not gush about it right in front of them._

_Ruby and Jasper devoured the snacks like animals, while Aqua tried to eat with some semblance of dignity and manners. After they were done, they all gathered around, Hinata and Fuuka waiting with baited breath for the explanation behind all this stuff._

_"Like we said before, my brothers and I come from a place called the Treasure Kingdom," Aqua started._

_"Queen Dia is the ruler of the Treasure Kingdom. She heard from neighboring kingdoms that a great evil has been plaguing other kingdoms. They're called Helminth. They appeared rather suddenly, and we don't know where they came from. All we know is that they're a race of parasitic beings that have to live off of Crystal Hearts to survive."_

_"You said something about those things before," Fuuka said. "What the heck are they?"_

_"They are a mysterious thing, and no one completely knows the inner workings of them," Aqua answered. "But we do know that they're very important to life, so much so that you go into a coma as soon as it's taken away from you. No one knows if you can recover without getting it back."_

_Hinata and Fuuka gulped in tandem._

_"That's where you guys come in!" Ruby chimed in, ignoring the grave air. "You guys are the reincarnations of the legendary warriors, Pretty Cure!"_

_Aqua nodded. "Only you, and the others like you, can do anything to stop them."_

_"…Why us?" Hinata asked softly._

_Jasper shrugged. "Somebody had to have been magical warriors on a past life. I guess it was just random that you got stuck with it." Hinata frowned a little and Aqua glared at him. Jasper just looked around like 'what'?_

_"Hey, the Helminth…was that weirdo one of them, that guy from the other day?" Fuuka asked. Aqua looked puzzled._

_"No…I don't think so, actually. Based on the description of Helminth that Queen Dia gave us, he definitely wasn't one. I didn't recognize what kingdom he came from at all, actually. I should report that to her." Aqua looked worried._

_"Well, whatever!" Fuuka said suddenly, jumping up. "Since it's fate anyway, we might as well do this! We can definitely take those creep Helminth on!" She paused, and looked down at Hinata. "Right?"_

_Hinata looked back, and a tiny smile formed on her lips._

_"Right."_

"Fuuka-chan?" Bura's voice snapped Fuuka from her memories. "You look a little spaced out."

"Ah, sorry, sorry, just thinking about stuff, no worries!" she grinned. "Anyway, that friend, her name is Hinata-san and we're totally gonna kick butt together!"

"'Kick-butt'? Are you guys joining karate or something?"

Fuuka giggled. "Yeah, something like that!"

* * *

Hinata's class had Home Ec today. Cooking wasn't something she was very good at, mostly due to the fact that she didn't care about food all that much. Whether it looked bad or smelled funny, as long as it tastes decent, it's fine, was her mindset. But, she thought she might enjoy this class a little more now.

"Hinata-saaaan! Partner with me, okay?" Fuuka called, waving Hinata over to her station. She jumped a little at the sudden loudness, but regrouped quickly, nodding to Fuuka. They were supposed to make onigiri today. Simple, right?

In ten minutes between the two of them they had a giant soppy pile of rice more resembling gruel than anything else. Fuuka side eyed Hinata.

"You think we used too much water?"

Hinata was staring at the directions.

"I was sure I followed the directions correctly...It said two cups of water." She looked at the tall drinking glass she pulled out of the cabinet above. "Maybe I should have used a smaller one?"

Fuuka sighed. "This is why everyone should just use rice cookers."

"I just like to get onigiri from the convenience store, anyway…"

A short girl with red hair with cute little pink heart shaped clips pulling back her side bangs passed by the two of them at that point, holding in her hand a plate of picture perfect onigiri.

"Oh my gosh," Fuuka said, drooling. "President Chisou-san!"

The girl turned towards Fuuka, tired-looking red violet eyes widening in surprise. "Yes?" she asked softly. Hinata thought that she sounded like someone's mom, but in a non-weird way. A pleasant, soothing voice.

"You made those onigiri yourself, right, right? Can you show us how? We're failing miserably," Fuuka sobbed overdramatically, pointing to their rice gruel.

"Oh! Of course I can, Iyori-san. By the way, you really don't have to call me by that full title," she answered with a little laugh.

Fuuka noticed that Hinata looked lost, so she leaned down helpfully while the president was already starting to make a new pot of rice.

"Hinata-san, that's Chisou-san. Chisou Yume. The student council president, remember? We had elections. Dunno why she's here though-her class doesn't have Home Ec now."

Hinata kind of recalled some uproar about elections earlier in the year, but she was never interested in politics.

"Hey, Chisou-san," Fuuka said. "I was wondering, why are you here making onigiri? It's 1-A's Home Ec time."

"Oh," Yume said, clearing away the unfortunate looking gruel mess. "The rest of the student council seemed a bit listless lately, so I thought it'd be nice to make them some homemade onigiri, as a little treat to perk them up." She looked over her shoulder at a stack of papers on the teacher's desk, biting her lip.

"U-um…" Hinata spoke up, voice low and strained. "Ah…if…if you have other…um, if you have things to do you…it's okay to…um…" Yume shook her head.

"It's fine, Tsuyoshi-san, "she said, and Hinata felt so bad that Yume knew who she was but not the other way around. "If I can't even help my fellow students make some onigiri, what kind of president would I be? Oh, the rice is done!" She clapped her hands together once in excitement and started on making them. Hinata and Fuuka just gazed at her in admiration.

"Chisou-san is really amazing, huh…"Fuuka said dreamily. Hinata just nodded, for some reason blushing heavily. A little while later, they had their own plate of perfect onigiri. Even though the two of them were watching Yume diligently, they doubted they could replicate her.

Yume glanced at her pink wristwatch and gasped. "Oh, dear! I'm running late. I'm sorry, Iyori-san, Tsuyoshi-san, I really have many things to do." She bowed quickly and jogged to get her stack of papers and plate of onigiri, balancing the two perfectly as she raced out of the room.

Fuuka and Hinata stared after her, a little worried about her franticness, but when they each took a bite of one of Yume's onigiri they just sighed in contentment and forgot about all their troubles.

* * *

**Today's Episode: A soft and gentle love is the strongest! Cure Petal is born!**

* * *

Yume walked briskly (not running, that was against school rules after all!) to the student council room. She finally finished delivering all the documents to the teachers, and all she had to do now was drop off the onigiri, and she'd be free for the rest of the day. Or so she thought.

Before she even took one step into the room, she was being bombarded with requests and questions.

"President, did you sign those documents for-"

"President, did you submit the proposal-"

"About the recent survey, President, did you-"

Yume took it all in stride, calmly answering yes, she did, or no, she'll get right on that. Her smile was a little weak, and her legs shook a bit and she almost stumbled, but a boy with shaggy brown hair quickly saved the day, leaping from his chair and helping prop up the plate of onigiri before Yume spilled them all over the floor, and grabbed her other hand to steady her.

"Are you okay, Chisou-san?" he asked, looking down at her with droopy, kind eyes. He had a small mole in the corner of his mouth. The other members of the student council stopped chittering finally and also asked if the President was alright. Yume just gave them her small smile and shook her head.

"I'm fine. Thank you, Aritomo-kun."

"More importantly, what's with the onigiri, President?" The other members were eyeing the plate hungrily.

"Oh! Yes, I made them for you all, as a gift." Yume smiled again and handed the plate out, and they all immediately grabbed some. They gave her a quick thank you and went back to work, except for Aritomo.

"You seem really tired recently, Chisou-san," he commented, biting slowly at his onigiri. "I hope you don't overwork yourself."

"I think that's definitely impossible for me, but thank you for worrying." Yume just brushed him off and checked her watch. "I have to go though; I have to quickly finish up work so I can make it to fencing practice on time!" She gathered up another batch of papers and gave him a cheerful smile before leaving. Aritomo stared after her, eyes filled with worry.

Neon peered down at the school, floating above it just high enough that no one would spot him. Florine said these "schools" are places where many people gather, so they would be a grand spot to collect Crystal Hearts. What she didn't say is that they were completely filled with children. Somewhere, some god was laughing at him, he was sure. But no matter.

He phased into the building, appearing in the gym (not that he had any idea what it was. Why were there so many giant orange balls? Humans confused him.)

At that moment, Yume walked in.

"Sensei? Are you still here? I need you to sign something-"She cut herself off as she stared at the weirdo in a robe standing a few feet away. Neon stared back like a deer in headlights.

"Um…Did you get permission to be in the school, sir?" she asked warily, taking a step back. Neon frowned and turned away, ignoring her to look around the room for something suitable for a Mogunna.

That just made Yume more suspicious. "Excuse me? Sorry, but unless you get permission from the office, you're not allowed to be here."

This was making it so much more difficult. Neon just wanted to hurry up and leave, so he grabbed the closest things to him, a baseball and a bat, and stuck his scarf's points into them. At once, they grew into large Mogunna, blue legs and arms and face sprouting from them. Yume gasped, and furrowed her brows together in apparent anger.

That…That is definitely not acceptable!" The Mogunna, and even Neon, just looked at her with utter confusion.

* * *

It was lunchtime, and Fuuka and Hinata went to the rooftop to eat so that the brothers could take a break from being smashed up in Hinata's bag. Hinata made them their own small lunches, which they were all (even Aqua) eating ravenously.

"Hey, Aqua," Fuuka said, sipping absent-mindedly at her box of juice. "You said there's other Pretty Cure like me and Hinata, right?"

Aqua paused and looked up at her, a piece of rice dangling from his mouth. "Yes, there should be four others, now that we have you."

"I was just wondering, y'know, finding me was kind of a fluke. Do you have any kind of plan to find the other ones?"

The other two brothers stopped eating because they choked a little bit. Aqua gulped and looked guiltily to the side.

"Ah…well…Funny you should mention that." Aqua gave an awkward laugh.

"The Kira Kira Charmies can kinda find them…if they're close by," Ruby offered, rather unhelpfully.

"Maybe fate finds them?" Jasper added, shrugging.

Aqua perked up. "Ah, yes, that's definitely it! Fate is the thing that helps find them the most!"

Hinata and Fuuka just stared at them, thoroughly unimpressed. Despite that, Ruby's bag started to glow. Aqua smiled smugly.

"See? Fate will take care of it."

Ruby took the pink Kira Kira Charmy out of his bag, and almost got dragged away by it from how hard it was pulling. Fuuka took it from him and Hinata shepherded the brothers back into her bag.

"We'll find her. We can't really have you running around the school," Hinata said apologetically before closing her bag, Ruby's grumbles still faintly audible.

The two of them were off, Fuuka holding up the Kira Kira Charmy like a flashlight. Luckily no one was wandering the halls, because they really wouldn't know how to even begin explaining the magic levitating bracelet. They turned down a hall and the pulling got more insistent and the light grew brighter and brighter. They stopped in front of the gym doors, where they heard a faint voice. They opened the door and peeked inside, and their eyes widened at the scene in front of them.

"-And furthermore, there's the added disrespect to school property. I don't know if there's an explicit guideline in the school's rule handbook about this, but I am _quite _sure it's not appropriate to turn gym equipment into….into those things!" Yume pointed violently at the pair of Mogunna, who were kneeling in front of her, both looking remorseful. Neon was still in shock at the girl who actually lectured both him and the Mogunna for going on five minutes now, so much so he couldn't even order them to attack.

"Chisou-san is amazing," Fuuka murmured, and Hinata could only nod dumbly.

"Ah! Wait, we have to save her!" Hinata said, regaining her composure. Fuuka slapped herself in the forehead like, 'Duh!'

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

Garnet and Peridot bust into the gym, and their appearance is what made Yume stop her lecturing. Well, that and the fact that the Kira Kira Charmy, now released from Fuuka's hand, flew over at top speed and nailed her right in the middle of the forehead.

"Whoops, sorry!" Peridot called over.

"Chisou-san is a Pretty Cure?" Garnet said, not really sounding surprised at all.

"That really hurt," Yume complained, rubbing the red mark on her forehead. Neon had enough of all this foolishness.

"Mogunna, attack the Pretty Cure!" The Mogunna jolted and scrambled to get up. Garnet and Peridot turned their heads to each other and nodded before leaping up towards them. Before they could attack, the baseball Mogunna bounced up and the bat struck at it, sending it flying and smashing into the Cures, then ricochet off of them and back to the other Mogunna.

"I hate sports," Garnet groaned. Peridot just sprang back up and went for a kick at the baseball Mogunna, only to be slammed by a homerun, right into the wall. Yume stared at the scene, eyes glancing worriedly between the two girls, and slightly moreso at the floor and wall, cracked from the impact. She clenched the glowing Kira Kira Charmy in a tight fist.

"Isn't there anything I can do?" she said aloud, and was answered.

"Well, you could put that Kira Kira Charmy on your wrist, for one," Jasper said, him and his brothers next to her. If Garnet thought they were going to sit in that dingy bag the whole time they were fighting, she had another thing coming.

"Animals aren't allowed on school premises," she said automatically.

"I ain't no animal!" Ruby yelled, offended. Aqua patted him on the back as he bristled.

"I know this is kind of sudden, but if you place that thing in your hands on your wrist, you could help defeat the monster," Aqua explained hurriedly.

"Preferably, you'll do it quickly, before the Pretty Cure turn into Pretty Pancakes." Aqua glared at Jasper. "What? What'd I say?"

Yume looked at the glowing bracelet. If this thing could help her protect the school, then…

She slipped it on her wrist, and then there was nothing but pink. And sparkles, but mostly pink. Pink and light blue ribbon-like tendrils sprouted from the Kira Kira Charmy, lacing around her into a diamond-shaped cocoon. Her eyes and mouth were opened wide for a moment, before her face slowly turned gentle, her eyes closing. She wrapped herself up in her arms, and ribbons from the cocoon snaked their way around her body, forming into clothes.

A knee-length dress, the middle lined up in light blue ribbon, ending at her chest with a light blue bow inset with a diamond-shaped petalite, formed on her torso, the hem and sleeves ending in oval pointed tips, lined in the same blue. Pink knight-like gloves with light blue ribbons appeared on her hands, Kira Kira Charmy dangling from her wrist, and a big light blue bow came on her waist. Short pink boots and light blue ribbons on her feet came next, and opened up her arms, leaning backwards as her hair turned pink and elongated, her side bangs done pinned up with light blue ribbons, and the rest of her hair pulled into a low ponytail with another ribbon, its shape like a heart.

She opened her eyes then, now pink, and the ribbons around her unraveled, guiding her down to the ground.

She landed softly, and did a small, elegant curtsy.

"A soft and gentle love is the strongest! The pink crystal, Cure Petal-

Wait, why am I announcing that…?"

"You should turn around now," Neon said to Petal. "If two of you couldn't defeat the Mogunna, you certainly can't by yourself."

Petal got over her initial confusion to shoot back at him, "It's not a matter of can or can't. As the student council president, it's my duty to protect the school and everyone in it! I won't let you hurt the place I love!" She had time to think about this later. Right now, she had to act before those monsters ruined the gym! Oh, and before they seriously hurt those girls, too.

The Mogunna were distracted with Garnet and Peridot, so they didn't notice the angry Petal stride up behind them. Without batting an eyelash, she kicked the baseball Mogunna hard into the wall, enough to crack it, and grabbed the bat. When it came flying back after bouncing off, she slammed the bat into it, causing both Mogunna to see stars.

While they were dazed, Petal ran over to help Garnet and Peridot up.

"Are you two alright?" she asked, wiping off smudges from their faces and straightening out their wrinkled clothes.

"Uh, yeah, Petal, how about we play house after we get rid of those things?" Peridot jerked her head towards the Mogunna.

Petal flushed and straightened herself. "Oh, um, yes, that would be best!"

Garnet and Peridot ran to the dazed Mogunna, sticking out their hands.

"Pretty Cure, Fiery Valor!"

"Pretty Cure, Windy Smile!"

Twin trails of red and green light surrounded the pair of Mogunna, squeezing them tightly. Petal raised her hands to her face, fingertips touching her lips before she flung them outwards, palms up in a beckoning gesture.

"Pretty Cure, Love Strike!"

Pink light shot out of her arms, forming a diamond shape and piercing through the trapped Mogunna. Finally, they let out their death knoll and vanished, turning back into the baseball and bat. Neon stared at them, detached, before slinking into the darkness and out of the school.

"We're unstoppable!" Peridot cheered, high-fiving Garnet.

"Y-yeah!" Garnet smiled, and turned around. "A-ah, Petal, th-thank you for-huh?"

Petal was running towards the door.

"I'm sorry! But I still have so many things to do-Oh, I'm so behind schedule!"  
The other Cures and the Gemmi brothers yelled to her.

"Petal! You have to transform back first!"

"O-oh, right!"

* * *

Yume: I hope those brutes didn't cause too much damage to the gym. I don't know how the school will be able to pay for the damages…

Fuuka: Even though you say that, didn't you put a giant hole in the wall?

Yume: E-eh?

Hinata: Um…I d-definitely saw that…from where you kicked that baseball…

Yume: I didn't notice at all! Is it terribly big? Oh, I feel awful. Do you think I could fix it myself? I'll go to the hardware store right now!

Fuuka & Hinata: Please don't do anything dangerous...!

Jasper: How did such a ditz become the president…?

**Yume: Next time on Crystal Hearts Pretty Cure: "The Purifying Light of Justice will Defeat all Evil! Cure Amber is Born!"**


	4. The Purifying Light of Justice!

Neon was quite confused when he finally returned to the base. Sitting at their normal spots at the table where Krylie and Florine, but the odd part was the stork shaped cake sitting between them, blue icing boldly proclaiming "CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR BABY BOY" on top. The twins looked pleased with themselves.

Krylie suggested they procure a cake to celebrate Neon's supposed victory (after all, third time's the charm). She read about them in one of the colorful leaflets filled with pictures that Florine always separated and threw away from her boring, word filled books. Neither was sure about what kind of cake to get, or if it was even for eating or just decoration, and in the end Krylie got bored with going to shop to shop and just stole a random cake from the display at a bakery.

"Um." Was all he could say.

"It's cuz you defeated the Pretty Cure!" Krylie said, the biggest smile on her face. Neon looked uncomfortable. "…Right?"

Florine frowned. "You didn't." It wasn't a question.

"Are the children of this planet like, some sort of superpowered mutants?" Krylie teased. She dipped a finger into the cake and licked the icing off. Grimacing, she pushed the cake away. Neon took a seat across from the twins, folding his hands politely in his lap.

"I thought it would be easy to…defeat…children, but I underestimated the power of the Pretty Cure. Children or not," Neon admitted, bowing his head. "I'm sorry." His eyes got wet.

"Oh, nooo, no no, it's okay!" Krylie said hurried, waving her hands. "Don't cry!"

"But-" Florine cut him off by reaching over the table and covering his lips with her hand.

"All this means is that we should start working together. You can rely on us too, you know," she said with a smile.

"Yeah! We're tough!" Krylie flexed her arms to emphasize her point. Neon laughed softly and wiped his eyes.

"Thank you."

* * *

"Alright class, today we're having a vote on who should be in charge of delivering the end of day reports to the faculty office."

The teacher for class 1-B surveyed her students with sharp black eyes, adjusting her glasses when someone raised their hand.

"Why don't we just have Yume-san do it?" they suggested. The rest of the class immediately mumbled their agreement. "She likes doing those kinds of things, anyway."

"H-huh?" Yume looked a little out of it. She had hints of dark circles under her eyes and her skin was slightly pale. "Um..Well, if everyone wants me to, I guess I can-"

A slam came from one of the back desks. Everyone whirled around in their seats to look. A girl that looked identical to Yume was the source. Besides her messy red hair done up in a high ponytail, she looked like her more sloppy twin, with her baggy yellow knee socks and suit jacket tied around her waist.

"Permission to speak!" she yelled suddenly, shooting her arm up.

"Granted," the teacher replied, folding her arms.

The girl nodded and looked very serious. She looked around the room to all the confused faces of her classmates.

"Stop making Yume-chan do everything!" she demanded. "Just because she's responsible, doesn't mean she should have to be stuck with the grunt work all the time! Why don't you think about how she feels?"

A girl frowned. "If she doesn't want to, she should just say so!"

"Obviously, she's too nice to turn anyone down! Maybe if you paid attention more, you'd see that!"

"Ah, really?" All the eyes moved to Yume, who looked like she was ready to bolt. "Do you really feel that way, Yume-san?"

"Oh, um, it's…I have a lot to do so…it would be nice if someone else did this job…?" Yume said, shifting her eyes away.

"Then please say these things in the first place," the teacher said suddenly. "Honda, I'll assign this job to you."

When class was over, Yume looked over to the girl who defended her, who was talking animatedly with a group of girls. She caught her eye, and went over to Yume.

"What's up?" she asked.

"I just wanted to thank you, Nee-chan," Yume said. "Having that responsibility on top of everything else would have made things hard for me."

"Aw, no sweat!" She patted her on the shoulder. "That's what big sisters are for!"

"Izuuumiiiii, come on, I wanna eat lunch!" one of the girls from the group called.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'!" Izumi called back. "I'll see you later, 'kay?"

"Mhm!" Yume said, smiling brightly.

* * *

**Today's Episode: The Purifying Light of Justice Will Defeat all Evil! Cure Amber is Born!**

* * *

Hinata and Fuuka went to fetch Yume soon after lunch started. They wanted to go to the roof, but after a brief scolding from Yume ('You two know students aren't allowed on the roof!') they decided to eat in an empty classroom. Hinata let the brothers out of her bag, and Yume frowned at them.

"Are you sure you're not animals?" she asked suspiciously, staring at Ruby.

"I _said_ I ain't no-"

"We're fairies," Aqua cut him off. "Definitely not animals."

That changed Yume's attitude. "Fairies? Real fairies?"

"I'm pretty sure we're real?" Jasper poked at his belly. Yume's eyes sparkled in delight.

"Oh, I've always wanted to meet a real faerie!...Though, you three aren't what I was expecting them to look like…"

Fuuka snickered at that, and Hinata hid her face to mask her giggles. Ruby snapped.

"What is that supposed to mean? We're the best faeries ever!" Ruby roared, fluffing out his body to try to look intimidating, but coming off as more as a giant cotton ball. Yume pet him on the head until he finally calmed down, making a content noise under his breath.

"So, anyvay," Fuuka started off, cramming rice in her mouth. "You're a Berdy Car an' yur godda fight stuff."

"Excuse me?"

"U-um…I think she said, u-um…" Hinata tried to look at Yume but quickly lowered her eyes to watch her hands play with each other nervously.

Aqua felt sorry for her and decided to step up.

"Basically, you're a legendary warrior called a Pretty Cure, and we need your help to fight monsters, like you did that day," he said.

Yume just nodded. "As long as it doesn't interfere too much with my school life, or my club, I'm fine with that."

"Wow, you took that well…" Jasper said.

"Is it really all that amazing?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. Everyone just stared at her. Finally, Fuuka swallowed her rice and said, "Hey, before I forget, let's exchange phone numbers!"

"H-huh?" Hinata said, jolting. She never had anyone in her contacts besides her parents and older siblings…That was kind of embarrassing.

"That makes sense. In case something happened and we needed to notify everyone," Yume said, pulling out her shiny pink phone from her jacket pocket.

"Actually, I just wanted more people I could send dumb texts to, but that's a good idea!" Fuuka said, holding her phone up to Yume's. It was bright green and loaded in cute decals.

"Aaaand, done! Infrared is cool, huh?" She moved over to Hinata. "'K, your turn!"

Hinata clutched her cheap little red flip phone in her hands like a vice. She knew she should have asked her parents for a new phone! She was going to look so uncool now…

But all Fuuka did was do her little infrared thing to get her number and stick her phone back into her green kitten purse. Hinata looked a bit surprised but didn't say anything.

"Wh-what the heck was all that?" Jasper asked loudly, pointing at Fuuka,.

"You mean…the phone?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Pho-ne?" Ruby repeated, cocking his head.

"We don't have anything like that in the Treasure Kingdom," Aqua said in awe.

Hinata held up her wrist to show her Kira Kira Charmy. "Then…do you communicate with these?"

"Oooh, no, that would be so cute…Tiny crystal phones for tiny little faeries!" Yume gushed, putting her hands on her cheeks.

"Yes, hello, operator? I'd like to order a large diamond pizza, heavy on the sapphire," Fuuka said, putting her own Kira Kira Charmy up to her ear and talking into it.

"H-hey, it's not like that at all!" Aqua fumed, and the girls all laughed.

* * *

Krylie slammed an ad for a new ice cream parlor that opened up in town on the table, grinning triumphantly. Neon and Florine stared.

"Ice cream," she said simply.

"Ice cream," Neon and Florine repeated.

Krylie put her hands on her hips and said, "I've been reading more of those colored leaflets, like the one with that cake thing in it, and this 'ice cream' was inside, and is a popular dessert on Earth!"

"So, there will be many humans coming to this parlor, right?" Florine said, reading the ad. "That's the perfect place to strike. Good job, Krylie."

"Uh…Yeah!" They didn't need to know she actually just wanted to eat ice cream with the two of them.

"Then let's go immediately," Neon said, starting to get up, but Florine pushed him down.

"Oh no you don't. You need an off day," she said, wagging her finger in his face.

"But you said we need to work together," Neon said, almost pouting.

"Working together doesn't mean always being together, silly Neon," she said, patting him on his head. " Krylie and I will handle it for today."

* * *

Izumi was waiting for Yume outside of the Student Council office after school, leaning on the wall and sucking on a strawberry juice box. She perked her ears when she heard footsteps coming from inside the room, and straightened herself up. Yume always complained about her posture when she saw her slouching, saying she was going to get a hunchback. Izumi was ninety percent sure that was only an old person disease, but she still sat up straight around Yume, since it made her feel better.

The student council members filed out of the room, Yume at the end, talking with Aritomo.

"Oh, Izumi-san!" he said as he passed her.

"Yooo, Yuu-kun," Izumi greeted, waving a peach sign at him. "I need to borrow my lil' sis for the rest of the day, 'kay?"

"Huh? Why?" Yume said. "Was I supposed to do something? Oh, no, I had a feeling that was forgetting about something today…"

"Chill out, Yume-chan," Izumi said with a laugh. "You've worked hard! I thought you'd wanna take a break and get some ice cream."

"Oh, you mean at that new place? Ouka?" Yuu said. "You should go, Chisou-san! We can handle the rest."

"Well, if you're sure…" Yume trailed off, biting her lip.

"It's fine, right?" Izumi said, already taking off down the hallway.

"Nee-chan! Don't run in the halls!" Yume yelled, walking briskly behind her.

"Sorry, can't hear you!"

* * *

Krylie and Florine, in their civilian forms (a pink ruffled dress and grey hoodie for Krylie, and yellow sweater and tight grey jeans for Florine), sat at a pristine white table in Ouka's patio, both staring at their ice cream.

They had been in conflict for a while now-sure, they needed to turn it into a Mogunna, but…

"M-maybe we can eat this one…and then get more?" Krylie offered, drooling a little.

"After all, they must have more," Florine agreed, and they both dug in hungrily.

* * *

"I just don't get what flowers have to do with ice cream," Izumi said as she and Yume walked through the door to Ouka. It had a flower motif on its sign, and many flowers hung from the ceiling inside.

"Flower ice cream sounds pretty," Yume said simply, shrugging her shoulders.

Izumi rolled her eyes but smiled, and ordered chocolate ice cream for herself and green tea for Yume. The two walked to the patio to wait.

"You know, not that I mind, but I was wondering why you invited me randomly like this," Yume said, taking one of the lace napkins on the table and folding it into her lap.

Izumi was attempting to do something vaguely resembling origami with her napkin before answering. "No reason, I guess…You just look awful."

"Hey…"

"I mean, you look like you haven't slept in a week! Have you looked in a mirror lately?" Izumi explained, waving a hand at Yume's face. "You look like a panda."

Yume put a hand to her cheek and scrunched her face up in worry.

"It's just…Mom's been so busy with that anime deal, and Dad's always overseas with his orchestra, and now you're so stressed out with the student council, I just…" Izumi trailed off, squeezing the napkin in her hands. "I just wanna help. If it's cleaning or cooking or just…making sure you don't over work yourself, I just wanna do something to help everyone out."

"Nee-chan…" Yume smiled softly. "You do a lot already. We'd all be a big mess without you."

Izumi frowned. "Still, I wish I could do more." She grinned, but it was a little strained. "It's a little lonely over here, with all these talented people around me, working so hard! I gotta do my part, too!"

Yume was about to respond, but was interrupted by the waitress giving them their order. She stared glumly down at her ice cream, appetite lost, but made herself take a bite as to not worry Izumi.

* * *

"MYEAH." Krylie gurgled as she slammed down her spoon. Between them, Krylie and Florine ate at least twenty orders of ice cream. Maybe. They lost count half way through.

"Our energy is recharged. It's time…to…attack," Florine said weakly, fumbling with her spoon before she just dropped it on the floor.

"No…but we ate all of it. Every ice cream." Krylie was sobbing. Her head was pounding and happiness was dead. She was never eating ice cream again.

"Krylie, no…We can get more. We can always get more." Florine tapped on her scarf and it sprang to life, snaking over to nearby tables and snatching their bowls of ice cream.

"Hey, I was eating that!"

"Tell that tacky scarf to give me back my ice cream!"

Florine twitched when someone had the nerve to call her scarf tacky. How dare they. Energized by newfound hatred, she jumped on to her table, making the scarf drop the ice cream on the ground below her. With a twist of her wrist she transformed into her normal form, and that was the point people decided they needed to get out of dodge.

Except for Yume and Izumi.

"Ugh, what a jerk! I can't believe she did that!" Izumi fumed.

"…Nee-chan, aren't you worried about the sudden transformation that she did?" Yume asked, deadpan.

Izumi shrugged her shoulders. "Isn't that some special effect cosplayers use? I'm pretty sure that's a thing."

Sometimes Yume wondered if Izumi was really the older sister.

Florine's scarf grew teeth and shot itself into the fallen pile of ice cream. The clumps began to pulsate and stray ice cream from other tables flew towards it, making it grow bigger and bigger. It shot up towards the sky in a blast of yellow light, an ice cream mountain with a spiky-toothed yellow face.

"MOGUNNAAAA," it roared, spitting ice cream like rain down below. A big splotch hit Krylie right in the face.

"Ugh. Say it, don't spray it," she said, violently wiping the gunk off.

"Th-that's just another cosplayer magic trick, right…?" Izumi said, dumbstruck. Yume ignored her, pulling out her phone and throwing it to Izumi.

"Please tell Tsuyoshi-san and Iyori-san to come here quickly!" she said, and lifted up her arm.

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

Petal jumped onto hers and Izumi's table, and grimaced when she realized she managed to stand in both of their ice cream bowls. Izumi gaped.

"Uh, hahaha…You never told me you were into cosplaying, Yume-chan!" she squeaked out. Petal turned around and frowned down at her.

"Nee-chan, please, the phone!"

"O-oh, yeah! On it!" Izumi said, typing furiously at the keyboard.

Petal nodded and turned her attention back to the Mogunna, whose gaping maw was absorbing the Crystal Hearts of passerby.

"You don't look so tough," Florine said with a smirk. "Neon must have just felt sorry for picking on children. Luckily, I don't." She pointed a perfectly manicured finger towards Petal. "Mogunna, attack!"

The Mogunna stopped its harvest to peer down at Petal, and unleashed a cry that was more ice cream than sound. Petal was quick on her feet, grabbing a nearby chair and holding it in front of her like a shield, and then threw it hard at the Mogunna. It just sank into its body in a slow, oozing motion.

"Ha! You'll have to try better than that, little child," Florine sneered.

"Yeah, you suck," Krylie laughed. She managed to fight through her ice cream sickness just enough to transform back into her regular form, but she still looked rather disoriented.

A deep frown set in her face, Petal jumped up into the air to launch her attack. At that same moment, Izumi finished sending out her text.

_"um hi this is chisou izumi im at ouka an ice cream monster is attacking my sis & she also turned into a magic cosplayer or something she said 2 contact you 2 plz hurry here?"_

* * *

Fuuka happened to already be at Hinata's house. Hinata was showing Fuuka and the Gemmi brothers how to play Go when the two girls got the odd text message from 'Yume'.

"Kudos to me! I knew having each other's numbers would be a good idea, in case something like this happened!"

"Um, wasn't that _Yume_ who said-" Aqua started, but Fuuka cut him off.

"Anyway, we have to go help her!"

"Y-yeah!" Hinata agreed, already getting her bag, the Gemmi brothers hopping inside.

"It's fastest if we just use my bike!" Fuuka said once they were outside the house. Hinata paled, and gulped.

* * *

"I can't believe Neon was having trouble with you, pity or not," Florine drawled. Petal was currently stuck inside the Mogunna's chest, ice cream akin to quicksand, after trying to punch right through it.

Izumi clenched her fists together, gritting her teeth in anger. What could she do? She wanted to help, but Yume was stronger than her like this. If even she couldn't defeat this thing, what hope did Izumi have? While she was busy being paralyzed with self-doubt, Fuuka and Hinata made their debut, bursting through the shop to the patio on Fuuka's bike in a flurry of fake flowers and dust.

"The cavalry has arrived!" she announced, trying to strike a cool pose. Hinata slowly let go of her vice grip around Fuuka's stomach and fell to the ground in a heap. One by one Jasper, Aqua, and Ruby filed out from Hinata's bag, all completely normal.

"That wasn't so bad. I think you just overreacted, Hinata," Jasper said, looking refreshed. Hinata slowly shifted her eyes towards him and stared like he just sprouted two heads.

"Whoaaaaaa, it really is an ice cream monster!" Fuuka said, whistling. "Let's beat it up!"

She pulled Hinata up from the ground, and they both raised their arms.

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

"Hey, you're not that weirdo from before!" Peridot said in an accusatory tone, pointing at Florine. Krylie snickered.

"He is kind of a weirdo, huh?"

Back at the base, Neon sneezed suddenly.

"They don't look like Helminth, either…" Aqua said, eyes shining with worry. Garnet looked up at Peridot, and smiled.

"H-Helminth or not, we'll beat them up, right?"

Peridot shot back a cheeky grin and patted Garnet on the back.

"Yep, yep! Let's go!"

The two jumped up in sync, doing a flip in mid-air before flowing into a kick, aiming towards the Mogunna's face. A cream-covered fist prevented the attack from connecting, making them slam to the ground, next to Izumi.

"This…isn't cosplay, huh?" Izumi muttered to them.

"Cosplay probably hurts less. Probably," Peridot said, rubbing her head.

"M-more…More importantly…" Garnet said, shakily getting up. "You sh-should run away, Chisou-san!"

Izumi shook her head immediately. "That's my little sister! I can't just run away and leave her in danger!"

"B-but…if you get hurt, won't she be sad?" Garnet asked. Izumi flinched, and bit her lip.

"C'mon, Garnet! Let's try again!" Peridot said, already leaping back up. Garnet took a quick peak at Izumi before following.

They tried for a punch this time, but misaimed and ended up stuck inside the Mogunna's stomach next to Petal.

"This is really grosssss," Peridot whined, struggling to get free.

"Is my sister alright?" Petal asked immediately, struggling to look past the ice cream below.

"I-I told her she should run away," Garnet offered softly. "But…I don't think she did." Petal looked panicked at that, and shouted with all her might.

"NEE-CHAN! PLEASE, RUN AWAY! I DON'T WANT YOU TO GET HURT!"

Izumi jolted when she heard Petal's voice. Tightening her fists even more, she screamed back, "I DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY WON'T! I'LL FIND AWAY TO SAVE YOU!"

"DON'T BE STUPID, NEE-CHAN!"

"ST-STUPID?! HOW CAN YOU CALL YOUR OLDER SISTER STUPID?!"

"I'M CALLING YOU STUPID BECAUSE YOU'RE BEING STUPID, NEE-CHAN!" Petal was on the verge of tears.

Izumi scrunched up her face, tears forming pinpricks at the corner of her eyes. Taking in a deep breath, she roared,

"CALL ME STUPID A THOUSAND TIMES THEN! I WILL DEFINITELY SAVE YOU!"

The Gemmi brothers were trying to block out the shouting match to save their poor ears the pain, but the glowing light from his bag caught Ruby's attention.

"There's a Pretty Cure here!" he said.

"What?!" his brothers said in unison.

"I SAID-" The amber Kira Kira Charmy flew out of the bag, hitting Izumi's cheek so hard she fell over.

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" She yelled, peeling the bracelet off her face. "Who's throwing jewelry at me?"

Ruby ran up to Izumi, waving his paws at her excitedly.

"Put it on, put it on! So you can save them!" he said. Izumi didn't even blink an eye at the weird rabbit dragon talking to her; her mind blanked out at the word 'save'. Without thinking, she put the Kira Kira Charmy on, and things got real yellow, real fast, and she was pretty sure a rogue sparkle got in her eye.

A burst of golden light flew from her Kira Kira Charmy, surrounding Izumi until they formed a diamond shaped container around her. Izumi stare determinedly ahead, but a big, cheesy grin soon formed on her lips. Light started shooting at her body, morphing into clothes.

A short, frilly yellow top appeared from the light, complete with a navy blue bow with a diamond shaped piece of amber at the center. Puffy striped yellow and pale yellow shorts came next, wrapped up in a big navy ribbon. Short pale yellow socks under shorter yellow and navy boots with navy ribbons materialized on her feet, and when she stuck her arms out, short frilly yellow gloves formed on her hands, navy ribbons on top, her Kira Kira Charmy hanging from a wrist.

Her hair turned yellow and grew bigger and puffier, splitting into two parts joined together by a navy ribbon, and her eye color changed to match her hair. She flicked her neck and a yellow choker formed. Her transformation complete, she spun around, kicking the amber cocoon's walls down. She fell down to the ground, landing firmly on her feet, pumping her arms to her sides in a confident pose.

"The purifying light of justice will defeat all evil! The golden crystal, Cure Amber!"

"Oh, joy, another one," Florine sighed, waving a hand towards Amber. "You know what to do, Mogunna."

"MOGUN-…na…." Amber was radiating a seriously scary aura as she crossed her arms and glared up at the Mogunna, so much so that even it looked a little frightened.

"You've caused a lot of trouble, you monster," Amber said, cracking her knuckles. "You dare harm any person around me, especially my precious little sister, and I'll TAKE YOU DOWN IN ONE STRIKE!" A bright golden light radiated from her when she shouted, causing the Mogunna visible pain as it leaned away, feebly trying to block it with an arm.

Amber took that time to jump up in the air and slam a fist hard into its face, sending it falling to the ground.

"WH-AT?" Florine and Krylie called at the same time.

"She's so cool," Ruby murmured, eyes growing big.

"I'll have you know, I took kickboxing for ten years!" Amber said with a huff. "Oh, but this magic outfit probably helps too!" With the Mogunna dazed, Petal, Peridot, and Garnet were able to escape its sticky hold, but not without taking some of it with them-they were totally soaked in half melted ice cream.

"I will never be clean," Peridot sobbed.

"If you take five-hundred baths, I'm sure you'll be fine!" Petal said encouragingly, but that just made Peridot cry more. Garnet poked both of them.

"Um, shouldn't we finish it off before it gets up…?"

"Oh, right!" Petal and Peridot said in unison. Garnet went first, lifting up her hands.

"Pretty Cure, Fiery Valor!"

"Pretty Cure, Windy Smile!"

"Pretty Cure, Love Strike!"

The Mogunna was wrapped up in the red, green, and pink light, utterly helpless. Amber nodded once to herself, and made a big, sweeping stroke with both arms.

"Pretty Cure, Light Slash!" she cried, yellow diamond shaped light whipping out from her hands and crashing into the Mogunna. It grumbled pitifully before it shrank and turned back into a pile of ice cream, stolen Crystal Hearts floating back to their owners. Florine made a 'tch' sound and said,

"I guess we really were underestimating them. Let's regroup, Krylie."

"Florine…Carry meeeeee," Krylie whined pitifully. Florine rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers, and the two disappeared.

"Nee-chan!" Petal said as she crashed into Amber, enveloping her in a hug. "You were wonderful!"

Amber pulled back and smiled at Petal, and then karate chopped her on the forehead.

"N-nee-chan, why'd you do that?" she whimpered.

"Don't you worry me like that again! As the older sister, it's my responsibility to take care of you, stupid!" Amber yelled, and gave Petal a bone-crushing hug.

Softer, she said. "I'm glad I was able to do something for you."

Petal's eyes misted over, and she returned the hug two-fold.

"Mhm!"

"This is all very cute and all," Peridot cut in. "But I really need to take a gazillion baths. Let's get out of here! Ah-" she looked to Garnet. "You can hitch a ride with me!"

Garnet let out a sharp cry and fell to her knees, defeated.

* * *

Hinata: I used to like ice cream…but I don't think I'll be eating it anymore…

Fuuka: I never want to see it again in my life! I'll die a thousand times before I eat that again!

Izumi: Speaking of ice cream, I got a voucher for two free cones at Ouka since Yume and mine got turned into a giant ice cream monster. You guys want them?

Hinata/Fuuka: PLEASE KEEP THAT AWAY FROM US!

**Izumi: Next time on Crystal Hearts Pretty Cure! "A Calm Ocean Wave Will be Your Guide! Cure Azure is Born!"**


	5. A Calm Ocean Wave Will be Your Guide!

Yume yawned sleepily as she compiled the documents for the school clubs. It wasn't her favorite job as the President, but necessary, so she soldiered on through the yawns and annoying chirping of early-morning birds. She was going at a nice, steady pace, until she hit a bump in the road.

"Huh? The swim team's documents are missing...?"

She sighed and heaved herself up from her desk and left the student council room for the pool. Seiwa sported a decent sized indoor pool, almost exclusively used by the swim team. Earlier that year, someone started a rumor that a ghost lived in the pool and would drown anyone that wasn't on the swim team.

Yume thought the swim team was kinda weird.

She pushed open the big red doors to the pool, surprised to hear splashing sounds. Surely no one would be up this early just to take a dip? But someone totally was. Once the person stopped doing (frighteningly quick) laps and stepped out of the pool, Yume realized who it was immediately. The tall girl with the long dark blonde hair could only be-!

"Niiwa-san? Niiwa Shiori, right?" Shiori stared at her for a moment, and pointed to the white cloth that was stitched into her blue swimsuit.

"My name is right here. You don't have to ask for clarification," she answered in a dull tone. Yume chuckled awkwardly. She wasn't good at dealing with types like these.

"Well, ah, I'm here for the swim team's documents…" Shiori ignored her in favor of drying her hair off, after which she used two blue barrettes to hold her bangs to the side. "Um…Did you hear me?"

"Yes."

"Oh…Well, could I have them?"

Shiori pointed to the small office at the end of the pool, but otherwise went back to ignoring Yume. Yume just sighed inwardly and got the documents herself.

"Really, as the captain of the swim team, she should be a little more organized," she muttered darkly to herself as she waded around the sea of papers on the mahogany desk. With a tiny 'aha!', she hoisted up a pack of papers.

"I found them, Niiwa-sa- ah?" Yume stuck her head out of the door, looking around. Shiori already left. She frowned.

"Well, goodbye to you too."

* * *

"Finally free from the chains of oppression, our valiant heroes bravely face towards tomorrow-"

"Iyori-san."

"-With hope in their hearts and smiles on their faces-"

"Iyori-san."

"-The knowledge of true freedom burns within them, and that flame will never be extinguished-"

"IYORI-SAN. The bell did NOT ring yet!"

Fuuka paused, one hand dramatically in the air and the other over her heart.

"But Naka-sensei, it's gonna ring in a second!" she whined. She was really getting into it, too!

"My name is not 'Naka-sensei' for the last time-" Nakamura-sensei was cut off by the shrill cry of the bell. He sighed in defeat while Fuuka cheered.

"Bye, Naka-sensei!" The class sang as they filed out. Nakamura-sensei waved his hand dismissively.

"Yeah, yeah. Get home safe, you brats."

Fuuka grinned and made a beeline to Hinata's desk. "So, what'd you think of my _stunning_ performance-Huh? Huh? You fell asleep! I wasn't that bad!" Fuuka cried, appalled, as she stared down at Hinata's sleeping form. It was quite a sight, with her buried in her crossed arms, the sleeves of her oversized jacket making a nest of sorts. Her glasses were pushed to the top of her head, making a mess of her bangs, and her back rose and fall in time with the soft snoring sounds coming from her.

"Ahh~ You're so cute, it would be a shame if someone….WOKE YOU!" Fuuka yelled the last words, sticking her hands in Hinata's arm-nest and tickling her neck mercilessly. Hinata woke with a start, shooting her head up in alarm before she melted into giggles.

"Hahaha, wh-what are you-ahahaha!-doing?" she managed to squeeze out, tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

"Just waking up my good friend Hinata-cha~an!" Fuuka sing-songed in reply, stopping the tickle assault once Hinata's face turned red.

Even after, it stayed red.

"H-…Hinata…chan?" she repeated, voice squeaking. Fuuka simply nodded, whispering in her ear.

"Y'know, we beat three monsters together, I think that qualifies us to go straight to 'chan'!"

She sat back and smiled. "Don't you think so? Could you try calling me Fuuka-chan?"

Hinata looked like she'd rather throw herself down the nearest mine shaft. But she just swallowed, and fiddled around with her fingers.

"Fuuka….chan," she said quietly. "Th-that's kind of embarrassing…" But Fuuka looked so happy, and that made being embarrassed much less of a big deal.

"Hey, could you two go strengthen your bonds of friendship on your own time?" Nakamura-sensei humped from his desk. "What I mean is, get going already!"

Fuuka stuck her tongue out at him, while Hinata mumbled an unintelligible apology.

* * *

Izumi and Yume were waiting for the two of them in the school's courtyard. Izumi huffed and put a hand on her hip once they were in view.

"Jeez, took you guys long enough!"

"Nee-chan, it's only been a few minutes…"

"One second or ten years, late is late!"

"Late for what?" Fuuka asked, cocking her head to the side in confusion. Ruby shuffled around in Hinata's bag and poked his head out.

"Sorry, Izumi-sensei! These two were taking forever!" he apologized. Fuuka and Hinata looked at each other. Izumi…sensei?

"I'm gonna teach Ruby to fight!" Izumi said proudly, sticking her head out.

"Eh? When did you two get so close?" Fuuka asked. Ruby dug around the bag until he found Hinata's phone, which he held up .

"Izumi-sensei and I have been talking through Hinata's magical communications device! I also explained to her about the Pretty Cure! She took it well, despite not knowing about magic! Izumi-sensei is the best!" Ruby gushed.

Hinata took her phone from him and scrolled through her inbox. Sure enough, there was a mass of texts from Izumi. She looked at the sent messages, and couldn't help a small laugh.

"H-how could you even decipher these?" she said, hiding her grin behind a hand. Fuuka and Yume took a peak at the screen and snickered themselves. Every message was rife with typos and grammar mistakes a five year old wouldn't make.

"Stupid! Words mean nothing when you communicate through spirit!" Izumi said defensively.

"A warrior's spirit speaks more than a thousand tongues!" Ruby said, obviously quoting. He jumped out of Hinata's bag to demonstrate through a series of vague kicks and punches. People were starting to stare.

"AHAHA, WOW HINATA, NEAT ROBOT TOY, SO COOL," Fuuka said loudly, grabbing Ruby's feet, causing him to trip. Something blue flew out of his bag as he lurched forward, but everyone was too focused on making sure no one realized Ruby was not, in fact, a robot. Izumi took Ruby and gently put him in her yellow weather-worn shoulder bag.

"Please be careful with him," Aqua's voice came out in a whisper, face poking out of the opening. "He's very small. And fragile. And tiny. And small."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Ruby hissed back.

"Stop being such worry wart. Izumi won't kill him," Jasper said lazily from the depths of the bag. "Probably."

Izumi rolled her eyes and spun around on her heel. "Ruby will be fine with me! I am an excellent teacher!"

"Have you taught before, Nee-chan?"

"…In theory!"

The four of them watched as Yume and Izumi walked away.

"He'll be fine," Fuuka said, not believing that at all.

"Yume-san is with them," Hinata nodded, eyebrows knitting together in worry.

"What if she steps on him?" Aqua gasped, horrified. "She looks like she would step on him."

"Sayonara, little brother," Jasper said, and went back to sleep.

* * *

Shiori surveyed the swim team. They completed their laps both around the track and in the water, and while she herself was barely out of breath, the other girls looked to be on their death beds. She narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. The team cowered under her gaze. They elected her because she was the best swimmer in the club, and had a great workout plan, but still…Everyone was kind of terrified of her.

"You all can go," she said suddenly, causing the group to jump. Shiori raised an eyebrow. "If you're tired, you can't swim. Go home for today."

"Maybe Niiwa-san isn't as bad as we thought!" a girl whispered to another, while everyone else sighed in relief.

"Oh, uh, Niiwa-san!" Another girl called to Shiori, holding up a strange medallion. "A girl in my class said we should put this in the pool, to ward off evil spirits or something. It was kinda weird so I thought I'd ask you about it."

"Oh, so people still believe that rumor…?" Shiori said, taking the medallion and turning it in her fingers.

"Y-you mean the one about the ghost that lives in the pool?" the girl asked, shaking a bit. "That's not real, right…?"

Shrugging, Shiori said, "Most likely not. I made up that rumor after all, so the pool would only be used by the swim team." She looked at the medallion, and threw it into the water. "One can't be too careful, though," she said ominously and left to the locker room.

"I take it back, Niiwa-san is definitely scary!" the girl from before cried, the team nodding their agreement.

* * *

Shiori was in the courtyard on her way home when something shining in the sun caught her eye. Upon closer inspection of the object, slightly hidden under some bushes, she found it was a charm bracelet, a single piece of azurite hanging off of it. Some irresponsible student probably slung it off their wrist on accident. It looked cheap, too.

But if it was just garbage, why was she picking it up and putting it on her wrist? It probably had germs all over it. It was ugly. Why wasn't she taking it off?

She walked away from the bushes and headed home like nothing happened.

* * *

**Today's Episode: A Calm Ocean Wave Will be Your Guide! Cure Azure is Born!**

* * *

This was the day he was fated to die. Ruby knew that now, with all of his heart. He was going to die and his executioner was Izumi.

"You're that tired already? We're not even done with our warm-ups yet!"

Izumi crossed her arms as she watched Ruby pitifully pick himself up and attempt to continue to drag the tire attached to rope wrapped around his waist. The two of them and Yume were in the twins' backyard. It was a cute, tiny thing filled with lawn ornaments and flowers. Yume was sitting on the porch, doing her homework on the lawn table and keeping an eye on her sister. Not that she thought Izumi _needed_ her little sister to make sure she didn't do something like accidently crush poor little Ruby with her foot, of course not!

Still, her eyes flickered up at the pair from her paper every so often.

"Izumi-sensei…I don't think I can do this," Ruby said hoarsely, collapsing in a puddle of his own sweat. Izumi frowned.

"Giving up is not a very warrior-like thing to do," she said disapprovingly. But as she saw how much Ruby was spent and suffering, she let her arms relax in a sigh and untied Ruby from the tire. "But I guess some things aren't meant for some people." Ruby looked up at her then, and was puzzle by the pained face she was making when she said that.

"What's wrong?" he asked, and Izumi easily brushed him off with a grin.

"Just hungry, I guess!" And right on cue, her mother, Kasumi, stepped on to the patio with a plate of snacks in one hand and a laptop in the other. Izumi promptly freaked out as she tried to hide Ruby behind her back. Luckily for her, her mother didn't seem to notice the little red furball.

"Oh, is Dad on?" Yume asked excitedly, clapping her hands together. Kasumi smiled kindly and placed her load on the table and sat down next to Yume. She was a short woman whose soft, pudgy body contrasted with the severe cut of her hair and pointed glasses that sat high on her nose.

While no one was looking, Izumi let Ruby go and he scurried into a patch of flowers to hide in. After a quick check to make sure he couldn't be seen, she joined her mother and sister in the patio. She stood beside Yume and peered down at the laptop screen, where a kindly looking older man with her same wild hair was smiling.

"Hey, dad," Izumi said lazily. "Your hair is still awful." That made him laugh.

"I get it from you!" he teased.

"Wha-hey, that's the other way around!"

"I saw your performance the other night!" Yume gushed, eyes wide in excitement. "The way you played your cello was _amazing_ like always…"

The two of them were launched into a discussion about music that Izumi could barely follow, and just stood there awkwardly. Kasumi noticed Izumi looking lost, and changed the subject.

"By the way, Utarou, did I tell you that Izumi-chan's been helping me with the Antique Witch Shop anime?"

Izumi flushed and waved her hands. "I-I'm not really doing much! It's not a big deal."

"I forgot about that! You're helping with some of Dorothy-Belle's lines, right?" Yume chimed in.

"That's amazing! Maybe you inherited some writing genes from your mother!" Utarou said brightly.

Ruby watched the scene from his hiding place. Even though Izumi was acting embarrassed, he was glad to see that she looked a lot happier than before.

* * *

Neon was sitting at the worn out dining table, piles upon piles of books surrounding him in neat stacks. He was trying hard to concentrate on his research of humans, but he couldn't help but cast a worried look over at Krylie every once in a while, who was sitting cross legged on the floor across the room from him, glumly flipping the pages of a teen girl magazine.

She'd been sullen ever since she and her sister got back from the 'ice cream incident', as Florine called it, and every time Neon asked her what was wrong, she brushed him off.

"Oh, just leave her alone. Let her sulk," Florine said flippantly earlier that day, before going out to get them supplies. "She's fine. She's just gloomy because her plan failed spectacularly."

Despite that, Neon couldn't help but worry. He _was_ the person the twins always teased about being a fusspot and he lived up to that name quite well. He gave up on reading once he realized he'd been read the same sentence five times now, and got up from his chair and walked slowly over to Krylie.

"Are you feeling alright?" he asked softly, leaning down to be eye level with her.

"Do you think I'm useless?" Krylie said after a long moment of silence. Neon frowned and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Of course not!" he said reassuringly. "Why do you think I would?"

Krylie's shoulders slumped and she absentmindedly rubbed the corner of a magazine page between her fingers.

"I just messed up so bad with that stupid ice cream thing. And maybe if I wasn't dumb and ate so much ice cream, I could have actually helped Krylie and maybe we could have defeated those stupid Pretty Cure and gotten a bunch of Crystal Hearts and-"

"Krylie, you're not dumb. Or useless," Neon said firmly, interrupting her. "We all make mistakes. That doesn't make you a terrible person." Krylie turned her head towards Neon, and was shocked at the fiercely determined looked on his face. However, it melted quickly into a softer expression.

"It's okay if you stumble and fall, no matter how many times," Neon continued, holding out a hand for Krylie and lifting her up. "It's alright to fail. Neither I nor Florine will think any less of you for it." He smiled brightly at her. "Just try your best."

"That was so unbelievably corny, Neon!" Krylie said, her eyes watering up. Neon forced out a dull laugh. "But still really sweet! I feel five-hundred percent better already!"

Krylie pumped an arm in the air. "Yeah! I'm not gonna sit around feeling sorry for myself anymore! I'm gonna go out there and do my best! And maybe completely mess things up again! Woo!"

Krylie wasted no time in running out of the house, leaving Neon standing there in her dust.

"W-was I really that corny?" he wondered out loud to himself, raising a hand to his lips. "Maybe I should find a book on motivational speeches…"

* * *

Hinata was sitting at the top of the fabled cake mountain. After years of searching the Himalayas for the fabled mystical mountain completely made of the sweet, she had final found it. And she was going to eat it until she reached the bottom. Trusty fork in hand, she reached down and got ready to scoop up her first bite-

"HINATA! PLEASE WAKE UP!"

Hinata jolted awake, getting tangled up in her comforter and ended up falling in a heap of pillows and stuffed animals.

"Finally! We've been trying to wake you up forever! I thought you were good at getting up!" Aqua was in her face, talking frantically.

Hinata was in too much despair about the disappearance of her cake mountain to formulate any sort of reply.

"Hinataaaa, I lost the Azure Kira-Kira Charmyyyyyy," Ruby cried, tiny body still running around Hinata's room, trying to find the missing bracelet.

That managed to get Hinata's attention. She broke away from her bed sheet cocoon and grabbed her phone from her bedside table. Looking at the date, she saw it was Sunday. No wonder she couldn't get up-she was used to being able to sleep in on Sunday mornings.

She sent out a text to the other Pretty Cure, asking them if they had the Charmy. Putting her phone back, she grabbed a change of clothes from her closet and went to the bathroom to change.

"I can't believe this is happening, oh no, what if it's gone forever, what if those people we've been finding take it, or worse, if a Helminth gets a hold of it-the fifth Pretty Cure will be lost to us!" Aqua started breathing quickly and Jasper and to pat him on his back so he'd calm down.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened! I always keep it in my bag!" Ruby sobbed, going through said bag again for what was the tenth time that morning.

"You guys need to calm down a bit," Jasper said. "Freaking out isn't gonna help us at all." Hinata came back from getting dressed just then. Her phone buzzed with messages, and all of them came back with no, they didn't know where it was.

"I'll ask the others to come help us look for it," Hinata said, fingers typing away at the key pad. "We just have to retrace your steps, and I'm sure with all of us helping, we'll find it."

"R-really?" Ruby squeaked, voice hoarse from crying. Jasper bopped him on the head.

"Yeah, duh, it's not like it just disappeared. We'll find it, so stop blubbering all over the place." He said, words harsh but filled with affection.

"We should leave now then! Every second we waste is another that something bad could happen!" Aqua said, already hopping into Hinata's bag, and his brothers followed him. With a yawn, Hinata picked up her bag and left her room.

* * *

"Didja find it?" Fuuka asked, picking herself up off the ground. Hinata looked up from the bush she was rustling through, and shook her head sadly. Between the two of them, they'd been looking for a good forty-five minutes, all around the perimeter of the school and half-way down the path t Yume and Izumi's house.

"I'll call Izumi-san and see how they're doing," Fuuka said. She brought her phone up to her ear.

"Hey, we got nothin'. You two hold up any better?" She paused, and frowned. "Oh, that sucks. Well, meet me and Hinata-chan at the park. We'll regroup from there." Fuuka grinned when she hung up.

"Hehe, 'regroup'. That sounds so cool."

* * *

At the park, Hinata and Fuuka sat on a bench eating takoyaki, waiting for the twins to show up. A little while later, they saw Izumi bounding down towards them, with Yume following behind much more slowly since her shoes were definitely not designed for anything resembling running.

"Sorry guys, we looked all over the backyard and couldn't find any-" Izumi started, but cut herself off after eyeing Fuuka and Hinata's takoyaki.

"Hey, hey, you didn't get one for me?" Izumi complained.

"Takoyaki is expensive! I don't get one for just anyone," Fuuka said.

"You got Hinata-san one!" Izumi complained. Fuuka stuck her tongue out at her and wrapped her arm over Hinata's shoulders, pulling her close. Hinata blushed wildly and almost dropped her ice cream.

"Hinata-chan is special! So she gets whatever she wants!"

"I can be special too!"

"I can see right through you. You don't care about me; you only want takoyaki! Hinata-chan's friendship is pure! Right, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata made a sound that might one day be decoded by linguists as an actual word.

"Nee-chan, if you want takoyaki that badly, I'll get one for you," Yume said once she caught up with her sister. Izumi's eyes lit up and she stuck up her nose at Fuuka.

"Ha! Keep your friendship! Who needs that when you have nice little sisters to get you things!"

Yume rolled her eyes fondly at Izumi, and went off to the takoyaki stand.

* * *

This was it. This was going to be her best plan ever. Krylie was surprised she didn't think of it before. She was standing in the park, _totally_ inconspicuous and she wandered from tree to tree, feeling it up and trying to gauge how big it was.

She couldn't believe she didn't see this before. Trees were huge and strong; and with a little help from her scarf, they'd have bark _and_ bite. She tilted her head towards the sky and laughed uproariously at her own terrible joke, gaining a few worried looks from passerby.

"But enough jokes for now," Krylie said out loud. She lifted her hands above her head, and transformed back into her normal form. Her scarf shot out and pierced the tree in front of her, and it slowly grey huge and turned black, a pink face with a gaping mouth filled with fangs forming on the front.

"Mogunna, do my bidding!" she yelled. It wasn't actually necessary to say that, but she thought it made her sound cool so she did it anyway.

"MOGUNNAAAA," it roared, opening up its maw wide to absorb Crystal Hearts.

Of course, the appearance of a giant tree monster caused most of the park goers to flee. Most. Niiwa Shiori wasn't most people. She always jogged in the park every Sunday morning, and she'd be darned if she was going to let some dumb monster interrupt her schedule. She was certain she could make the last lap before that thing ate her.

* * *

"Aw, man, not again," Izumi groaned. "I didn't even get to eat my takoyaki yet!"

"You can eat it later, Nee-chan!" Yume said, taking a battle stance. "We have to fight that thing!"

"Wow, Chisou-san, you're really into this, huh?" Fuuka commented. Yume blinked at her.

"I am?"

"D-do you do things like, um, play RPGs, Ch-Chisou-san?" Hinata asked timidly. "You k-kinda sounded like a hero-type character…"

"Ah, well, I used to play Nee-chan's games from time to time, when I was free…"

Izumi cleared her throat loudly. "Uh, hey, game chats can come later. Giant monster terrorizing the people here? Geez, and you say I get off topic…"

All four girls raised their arms up in the air.

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

Newly transformed, the Pretty Cure jumped into action. Jumped being the operative word as all of them launched themselves at the Mogunna. Smacking your body right into thick bark went about as well one would expect.

"Okay, I know bark is hard, but _ouch_," Peridot whined, rubbing her sore leg. The other Pretty Cure, rubbing their own smarting limbs, agreed.

"M-maybe we should try to find its weak spot?" Garnet suggested. Amber hit her fist on her open palm.

"That's right, Garnet! Monsters always have one of those in games! It must apply to real life as well!" With this new information, Amber bounced up to the Mogunna again, soaring above its dark, leafy head to its back.

"Huh, I don't see any big glowy things or anything like that…Where the heck's your weakpoint?" Amber mumbled to herself. She got angry after not being able to find it, and kicked at one of the Mogunna's roots. That made it turn around, staring down at Amber. Amber ran away before it could crush her under a root.

"Let's try attacking it while its guard is down!" Petal yelled, and she and Garnet and Peridot punched and kicked at the Mogunna while it was chasing after Amber. When it felt the pinprick-like attacks of the Pretty Cure at its back, without even turning around, it reached behind itself with a free root, and slapped them away. They hit the ground with a large thud.

The Mogunna finally caught up to the fleeing Amber, and it caught her up in a root, throwing her into the Pretty Cure pile.

"Ugh, thanks for breaking my fall, guys," Amber said. They all glared at her.

* * *

"Oh no, they're really in trouble," Aqua said, voice shaking. The Gemmi brothers hopped out of Hinata's bag to watch the fight. Ruby's eyes teared up.

"It's all my fault! If I didn't lose the azure Kira Kira Charmy, we could have found the fifth Precure, and-"

"Ruby, sitting there crying about it isn't going to do anything," Jasper said calmly, though he looked on edge.

"But…" Ruby looked miserable.

Aqua sighed to try to calm himself, and wrapped Ruby up in his wings.

"Have hope, Ruby. They will win, and we'll find the Kira Kira Charmy. Everything will work out in the end."

Ruby didn't look like he particularly believed his brother, but he nodded anyway.

* * *

Shiori was in shock. Not because of the monster (well, maybe a little bit), but more because of these...super girls? Ignoring the whole transforming business, (because that was obviously not that noteworthy), they were just awful.

They kept doing the same thing over and over again as if that would yield different results, and their form was just terrible, awful. Shiori had the oddest urge to go over there and show them the proper way to beat up a monster; it was similar to the feeling she felt when she found the ugly bracelet the other day, the one she was still wearing on her wrist even right now.

It was weird, and she hated it, but this intense feeling still bubbled up inside of her, making her feel like she was going to burst. As she felt it more and more, the bracelet began to glow, and only when it got bright did she notice the light and hold her hand up to look at it.

From somewhere deep inside herself, she felt words, and they were begging her to speak them. Breathing deeply, she raised her hand higher, over her head, and in a sharp, clear voice, said,

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

She was prepared for a lot of things, but not for everything around her to turn all blue and sparkly. Not that her surprise showed on her face, of course. With a firm expression, she stared ahead, the Kira Kira Charmy spouting streams of water around her, forming a diamond shaped cocoon around her.

She was drenched in water like a shower from the top of the cocoon, and in its wake left her in a blue billowing coat, front wrapped up in orange lace and an orange bow with an azurite center, and a short orange pleated skirt underneath. More water splashed at her legs, giving her light long light blue socks, and blue and orange knee boots.

Water splashed on her hands formed light blue half gloves, an orange bow and azurite combo placed neatly on top, like her chest bow. And finally, she twirled around and water sprinkled onto her, turning into a big orange bow wrapped around her middle.

She combed her hair once with her wingers, hair turning a bright blue as she went. A droplet of water fell on her head, and hoisted her hair up in a ponytail held with an orange and azurite bow. Two more droplets fell on her bangs to form two orange barrettes with an azurite on each, the same place where her previous barrettes were.

Her transformation complete, the cocoon opened like floodgates as water poured down, taking her with it. She landed with a big splash at the bottom, and stood firmly, confident and in control, long ponytail billowing behind her like a wave.

"A calm ocean wave will be your guide! The blue crystal, Cure Azure!"

Azure didn't have time to complain to herself how corny her intro was, because she had to run quickly ahead to stop the Mogunna from crushing the Pretty Cure with a thick root. She made it just in time, stopping in front of the four Cures and holding the root up with one hand.

"WH-WHAT?" the group cried in unison. Where the heck did this girl come from? The Gemmi brothers were also in shock.

"Th-that's Cure Azure, isn't it?!" Ruby cried, elated but also confused as heck.

"Wow, convenient," Jasper said lightly.

"S-See, I told you, it's all in the power of hope!" Aqua said, trying to sound triumphant but the strangled sound he made kind of prevented that.

While still holding the root up, Azure turned her head to talk over her shoulder.

"Follow my lead if you don't want to be flattened," she said evenly. The four just nodded. "I'm going to let this go, and you're going to run." And she did so. Garnet, Peridot, Petal, and Amber jumped out of the way before the root came crashing down. Azure sidestepped to avoid it.

A little ways from the Mogunna, Krylie pulled at her pigtails in anger. "This is so messed up! Another Pretty Cure?! You guys just appear in bunches like flies to garbage, and you're just as pesky!" With a stomp of her booted foot, she yelled, "Mogunna! Crush them!"

"MOGUNNAAAAAAA," it screamed, launching its roots at Fuuka, who avoided the attack quite easily due to her speed. This didn't go unnoticed by Azure.

"Hey, fast girl, keep that thing busy!" She yelled, and Peridot looked put off.

"'Fast girl'? I have a name, y'know," she grumbled, but did what she was told anyway. "Hey, hey, you overgrown piece of broccoli! Bet you can't catch me with your slow little legs!"

The Mogunna appeared to take great offence to the taunt, as it narrowed its eyes at Peridot, and began the chase. Azure jumped up to a nearby tree and grabbed a bunch of cherries from it. She smashed them in her hand, and got it covered with juice. She ran after the rampaging Mogunna, and wiped the juice on its back, forming an X-shape.

"Keep attacking that X with all you've got," Azure instructed. Amber looked doubtful.

"Uh, we already tried that. That bark is way too tough, and it doesn't have any weak points, either!" Azure stared at her, and it freaked her out a little.

"If you can't find a path, make one. Break through every wall with all your might," she said simply, demonstrating this by landing a fierce kick on the X herself. Garnet and Petal looked utterly starry-eyed.

"I like the way this girl thinks!" Petal said, and Garnet nodded quickly. They both leapt up to attack the X as well. Amber sighed and shrugged, and followed after them.

"H-hey, guys, you done with whatever you got cooking up back there?" Peridot panted, dodging yet another root strike. "I'm getting tired over here!"

"This should do it," Azure said. They'd been striking at the X over and over again, and it was finally starting to crack. Thanks to the Mogunna being so highly offended at Peridot, it didn't register the hits at all.

With one last strong kick, Azure broke through the X. Deep cracks started forming all around the Mogunna, and it finally stopped its chase, sensing something went wrong. All at once, its armor-like bark shattered, leaving its soft skin exposed.

"Now this, I can deal with," Amber said, grinning as she cracked her knuckles. Altogether, the Pretty Cures punched the Mogunna, the force causing it to crash to the ground.

"Time for the grande finale!" Peridot yelled cheerfully, holding up her hands, Garnet, Petal, and Amber following suit.

"Pretty Cure, Windy Smile!"  
"Pretty Cure, Fiery Valor!"

"Pretty Cure, Love Strike!"

"Pretty Cure, Light Slash!"

Green, red, pink, and yellow light engulfed the Mogunna, and it squirmed around in pain. Azure crossed her arms over her chest, fingers splayed out.

"Pretty Cure, Vapor Channel!" Large spheres of watery blue light popped into existence, hovering in front of each of her fingertips. She whipped her hands forward, causing the light to hurtle forward, smashing into the Mogunna.

That was too much for it to take, and with a heaving bellow, it faded away, the tree it possessed standing upright and perfectly healthy, the Crystal Hearts it managed to take flying back to their owners, and the Glitter Dust they left was collected deftly by Jasper in the Glitter Jar.

Instead of crying and getting mad like she would have, Krylie took the defeat quite nicely. "I did my best, definitely! Here's to next time!" she said simply, and slipped away behind a tree.

One by one, the Cures transformed back into their civilian forms. Fuuka sank to her knees, letting out a deep breath.

"I never want to run that much again," she said. Hinata laughed and patted her on the back.

"Can we go get takoyaki now? I'm still mad that I didn't get to eat mine," Amber grumbled childishly. Yume turned away from the group.

"Before that, we need to find out who Azure is," she said. She looked at the still transformed Azure. Azure stared back.

"…Oh," she said in realization. She closed her eyes, and with a flash, she transformed back into Shiori.

Yume's eyes popped open. "N-Niiwa-san?!" Fuuka and Amber gasped as well.

"Y-You mean Niiwa Shiori, the swim club captain?" Fuuka said, looking terrified.

"Th-the same one who everyone says summoned the demon that lives in the school's pool?!" Izumi near-shreiked. Hinata was deeply confused.

"I've never heard of all that…" she said quietly.

"Jeez, Hinata-chan, you didn't know who the student council president was, and you don't know about Niiwa-san, do you come to school every day and just sleep the whole time?" Fuuka said.

"…Not _every_ day…"

"If you all are done now, I need to get going," Shiori said, starting to leave anyway without waiting for an answer. Yume reached out to grab at her shirt without thinking.

"Um, please wait, Niiwa-san! Don't you have questions about what happened?" she asked, bringing her hand back to herself. Shiori turned back around and looked up for a moment, as if pondering the question.

"Not really," she finally answered. Fuuka balked.

"There's a limit to how cool, calm, and collected one kid can be, y'know," she said in disbelief.

"I don't care to know, because I know all I need to," Shiori said, holding up her wrist to show the Kira Kira Charmy hanging from it. "If I run into a monster again that inconveniences me, I can defeat it using this."

"W-well, there's a lot more to it than that…" Yume started, but Shiori shook her head.

"That's all I need to know. And by the way," she said, turning away again. "Don't come crying to me the next time you get into a fight. This was your one freebie. You're on your own from now on."

The other girls jumped at that.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Hinata spoke up, voice trembling. "Y-you're…not joining us?" Shiori didn't even bother turning back around.

"I don't need you," she said, her tone a little more harsh. "I do better alone." With that, she walked away, leaving the other four girls staring helplessly at her retreating back.

* * *

Krylie watched the whole scene from behind a tree, and grinned devilishly as she saw Shiori walk away.

"Seems I've stumbled onto something nice~! I knew things would look up if I did my best today!" With a menacing giggle, she snapped her fingers, and disappeared.

* * *

Hinata: I can't believe Niiwa-san won't join us…

Izumi: That's fine with me! Not to mention the pool demon, I've heard all sorts of creepy things about her! Some say that she's the princess of the ghost world!

Yume: I never knew you listened to such gossip, Nee-chan…

Fuuka: Rather than that, you're just spooked by ghosts and ghouls, I bet!

Izumi: I have a right to be afraid! If you can't punch it, you should be afraid of it!

Aqua: What odd logic…

**Hinata: Next time on Crystal Hearts Pretty Cure: "Please Join Our Team! The PuriKyua Club!"  
**


	6. Please Join our Team!

Shiori, just like every day, woke up in her too large bed, in her too large house. Her room was beautiful but oddly bare, the only thing of note in her room her massive amount of clothes in her huge closet. She dressed into her school uniform mechanically, though tied the boy's tie instead of the girl's ribbon around her neck. With a quick check over in her full-length mirror to make sure not a hair was out of place, she made the long trek down her Hollywood-esque staircase.

Her whole house was kind of ridiculous, if you asked her. It looked like a mansion straight out of an American film. Which it pretty much was. Her parents were rich enough, and her mother a huge nerd about her job enough, that their house was custom built and modeled after the mansion in some movie her mother loved and wished she was alive during the time it was filmed so she had the chance to act in it.

Shiori only knew these things because the butler, Clara, told her about them when she asked. Her parents weren't around often enough for her to learn anything from them. Ignoring the stupid feelings that rose up whenever she thought about her parents, she continued down into the front room, where Clara was standing by the door, waiting.

Clara was an older woman with close cropped black hair and piercing grey eyes. She was dressed in the average modern butler uniform of a black suit and white collared shirt, and it didn't help making her less imposing. However, when she saw Shiori, her face softened up considerably.

"Buongiorno, signorina Shiori," Clara said kindly, opening the door for her.

"Buongiorno,"Shiori mumbled back in reply. She probably should be more firm in Clara speaking Japanese even while around Shiori (heaven knows her butler needed all the practice she could get), but it was early and it was easier to just slip back into her mother tongue. Outside, a black Benz was waiting in the drive way. Her parents owned many vehicles, but for some reason they were all limos or something else equally awful to be seen inside and also impossible to navigate Japan's narrow streets in. Clara had to personally request a normal car to drive Shiori to school in, and they still sent something needlessly expensive.

Shiori's parents were a little out of touch with reality. That happens when you become fiendishly wealthy.

Clara opened the back door for Shiori, and she got in. Clara walked around and got in the driver's side, and off they went. Shiori looked out of the window in boredom. They were pretty isolated out here, the house literally on a mountain because that was the only place with enough space, so there wasn't much to look at.

As time went on, the mountains disappeared, and they entered a more urban area. It was a little bit of a tight fit getting through those slim streets, but Clara was used to this path by now. She slowed down and finally stopped in front of a tiny house that was smashed up tight between two other eerily identical ones.

Clara honked the horn once, and a second later, the door opened. A very tall girl with pale yellow hair in pigtails stepped out of the house. She was wearing the same blue school uniform as Shiori, but the jacket was unbuttoned and was more sloppily put on compared to Shiori's. A rather large silver pendant hung from her neck, lying on her chest. She yawned and wiped at her sleepy black eyes as she walked towards the car, sliding into the back seat.

"G'morning, Shiori-chan, Clara-san," the girl said blearily, yawning again.

"Good morning, Kabuchi-san," Clara said back, her accent thick. Shiori stared at the girl next to her, eyebrows furrowing.

"Ion, do you realize you're a complete mess right now?" she said finally. Ion just shrugged.

"I figured, but I didn't really care…I'm too tired, since I was up all night writing…"

"I told you you should stop doing that. It's important to get enough sleep at night. And are you really making sure you have enough light when you're writing? If you don't, you're going to ruin your eye-…What?" Shiori paused in her rant, distracted by the mirth on Ion's face.

"You're motherly again today too, Shiori-chan," Ion teased, giggling softly.

"She always gets like this around Kabuchi-san," Clara said evenly, but Shiori swore she could see the crack of a smile from her butler reflected in the inside rear view mirror. Shiori frowned deeply and crossed her arms, looking determinedly out the window.

"I take it all back. Ruin your eyes and your health, I don't care," she muttered darkly. That just made Ion laugh more.

Fuuka needed to take a shortcut that day-she wanted to run a couple extra laps that morning, and was running late because of it. So instead of her usual route that was as roundabout as she could make it, she cut through a nearby residential area that would take her right to Seiwa High.

She had to bike on the sidewalk, and it was a hassle maneuvering through all of the people (though she had to admit to herself she felt a bit of glee when she would ring her bell and unsuspecting people would jump and scramble out of the way), but she would soon be glad she took this route.

A fancy-looking black card was side by side with her, only for a few moments. Its out-of-placeness made her turn to look at it, and what she saw almost caused her to wreck into a fire hydrant, and she had to stop suddenly, losing the car. But she had seen enough. She broke into a wide grin, and put the pedal to the metal with renewed vigor, eager to get to school.

* * *

**Today's Episode: Please Join our Team! The PuriKyua Club!**

* * *

Hinata, Yume, and Izumi were gathered underneath a tree outside for lunch, just far away enough from any other students to talk freely. Hinata let the Gemmi brothers out of her bag, and the girls formed a protective circle around them so they wouldn't be seen.

"Geez, what's taking Fuuka-san so long?" Izumi complained in between bites of her rice. "She was the one who was so adamant about us coming here, and now she's late?"

"I-I'm sure, that, um, F-Fuuka-chan will be here soon, Izumi-san," Hinata said softly, stirring her food around nervously with her chopsticks. Izumi looked at her for a moment, and then flicked her on the nose. Hinata made a squeaking sound and covered her nose with both hands.

"Dummy, you can drop the 'san', y'know," Izumi said, looking a little offended. Yume looked up from the book she was reading to speak up.

"Oh, if we're talking about that, please feel free to be less formal with me, too, Hinata…chan?" Yume looked to Hinata for approval. Hinata's face turned the color of a fresh apple, and a shy smile worked its way across her face.

"O-oh, um…Then…Izumi-chan…And Yume-chan," she mumbled, playing with her fingers and bowing her head. "Y-you can call me Hinata-chan, too, if you want…"

The twins were quiet, so Hinata looked up in curiosity, only to be met with their blank faces, staring at her. A wave of mortification washed over her. Did she do something wrong? She should have just kept her mouth shut-

"Hinata-chan, you're so adorable!" Yume all but squealed, clasping her hands together.

"Seriously, this is like, manga character levels of cuteness. You're really real, right?" Izumi said suspiciously, poking Hinata's cheek for effect. Hinata had no idea how to respond, so she went for her default reaction of sputtering and making her face light up as bright as the sun.

"Is Hinata really that cute?" Aqua asked suddenly. The Gemmi brothers were eating their own shared lunch Hinata packed for them, and were all equally uninterested in the conversation until now.

"That's right, you're fairies," Yume said. "I guess what humans think is cute wouldn't apply to you."

"Nah, that's not it," Jasper said after swallowing a piece of fish. "I'd bet it's just that Aqua here can't think _anyone_ is cute unless it's his fella."

That got Yume's attention real quick. Aqua blanched and glared daggers at his brother.

"You have a tiny little faerie boyfriend, Aqua?" Yume asked excitedly, clapping her hands together. "What's his name? Is he as small as you? Is he as cute as you? What do you like about him?"

Izumi rolled her eyes. "There goes Yume-chan, the love freak." Hinata was just glad the attention was away from her now, but she felt sorry for Aqua, who looked absolutely mortified.

"He's-I suppose-I don't-ugh," Aqua said, unable to keep up with Yume's questions.

"His name's Topaz," Ruby offered, face smeared with food (he dodged when Aqua tried to wipe him off on reflex). "I like 'im. He's nice."

"And he's just my friend," Aqua said, tone indicating that the conversation was over. And like an angel coming down from the heavens in a shower of golden light, Fuuka came tumbling towards them, dragging Ion-who was absently eating bread- in tow. The Gemmi brothers scurried back into Hinata's bag to hide.

"Here she is- the answer to all of our problems!" Fuuka said dramatically, holding her hands out towards her like Ion was the top prize in a game show. Ion blinked and shoved the rest of her bread in her mouth, crumbs sprinkling onto either side of her lips.

"Um." Was all the group could say. Fuuka rolled her eyes.

"Okay, so, you know Niiwa-san doesn't want to join our, ahem, 'club', but this girl-Kabuchi Ion-san-, is gonna help us with that!" Fuuka said, as if it were obvious.

"She…is?" Yume said, raising an eyebrow. Ion shrugged.

"Fuuka-san said she'd give me some bread if I helped her," she explained simply.

"But, how can you get Niiwa-san to join us?" Izumi asked, frowning slightly. "She turned us down pretty badly."

Ion pondered this for a moment. "I guess I'll just ask Shiori-chan if she'll reconsider…?"

Everyone's eyes bugged out. "Sh-Shiori-'chan'?" Yume said a little too loudly, raising her hand to her mouth. "You're really that close with Niiwa-san?"

"I suppose…I helped her when she left her homework at home one day, and ever since, she's insisted that she owes me," Ion said. "She's been driving me to school and things like that. Even though she doesn't mind when I call her Shiori-chan, she told me we're not friends." Ion giggled at that.

"When I asked if we were friends, she said," she put on the grumpiest face she could muster. ",_'I have no friends._' She sounded like an anti-hero from an anime-it was soo cute…"

Everyone else thought that Ion needed to reexamine her definition of the word 'cute'.

"Anyway," Ion said. "What kind of club is this?" Fuuka floundered.

"W-well, uh, it's-"

"It's a club! Y'know, it does club things," Izumi added unhelpfully.

"It's definitely real! As the student council president, I can say that for certain!" Yume said loudly, the lie plain on her face.

Hinata spoke up, kneading her hands together nervously. "It's a…Purikyua…club." Everyone quickly turned their heads to Hinata, who covered her mouth when she realized what she said. However, Ion just looked at her blankly.

"You mean a purikura club?" she asked. "Like, taking pictures?" The girls sighed in relief.

"Yeah, that's exactly it! We form a group and go to malls to find a bunch of different purikura booths, and take pictures and stuff!" Fuuka said. "It's just the four of us now, so we wanted Niiwa-san to join so we could have more members!"

"Oh, that sounds fun," Ion said airily. "I can definitely try to get Shiori-chan to join." With that, Ion excused herself and went back inside the school.

"Well, that was easy," Izumi said. "But-wait, even if she does join, how the heck will that make her agree to join us as a Pretty Cure?"

Fuuka sighed and shook her head as if she couldn't believe she actually had to explain this. "Um, duh, the purikura club IS the 'Pretty Cure' club, uh, team-if she joins one she automatically has to join us as a Pretty Cure too!" Izumi smacked her head in disbelief.

"I don't think it works like that, Fuuka-chan," Hinata sighed.

* * *

"No." Shiori answered the question not even a second after Ion asked. Ion had been joining Shiori for lunch, as well as actually getting (amazing, decadent, mouth-watering) lunch from her, because this also was a part of Shiori paying her back.

Honestly, Ion thought this was a bit too much just for lending someone some homework, but Shiori had been so adamant about paying her back that Ion just went with it.

"Are you sure? I think it would be fun," Ion said, taking a big mouthful of something she probably wouldn't be able to pronounce the name of even if she knew what it was called, despite eating the bread from earlier.

"I'm already in a club, and besides, I don't care about taking pictures with people," Shiori explained, her tone sharp. Ion was beginning to suspect that that was how Shiori talked all the time, regardless of mood.

"Hnnn~ That's too bad," Ion said. "I was actually thinking about joining myself…"

Shiori paused, holding her spoon in mid-air. Ion looked confusingly at her.

"You're going to join?" Shiori repeated, for some reason not looking at Ion. Ion shrugged, twirling her own spoon around in her food.

"I guess so? I'm not in any clubs, after all. Maybe doing something new will be fun!"

"I'll join."

Ion stared, and then a small smile formed on her face as she giggled, bringing her hand up to her mouth. "You changed your mind because of me? You're so sweet, Shiori-chan~"

Shiori grimaced like she ate something rotten, and stood up abruptly from her seat, causing Ion to jump.

"I'm going to the bathroom," she grumbled, walking stiltedly out of their classroom. Students who were hanging around the doorway scrambled to get out of Shiori's way when she passed.

Ion blinked after her.

"Well, I'll be here…" she said to the air.

* * *

Krylie was in an exceptionally good mood, despite having utterly crashed and burned the other day. She didn't bring back even one Crystal Heart, and yet she looked like she was on cloud nine. Florine narrowed her eyes, peering over her book at her sister, who was sitting across from her at the table, humming some song she heard on the 'radio' under her breath (and horribly off-key) and flicking through a gossip magazine.

Neon was also looking stupidily happy for some reason, over in the corner sitting in a chair by the window. He had a letter in his hands that he had been reading for the past ten minutes with a dopey expression on his face.

"What exactly happened while I was gone?" Florine asked loudly, putting her book down and flicking her eyes between Krylie and Neon.

"Huh?" They said at the same time, twin looks of confusion on their faces.

"You're both too happy for no reason. I want answers," she demanded, trying to sound cool and authoritative but coming off more like a whiny kid who felt left out.

"Neon gave me a pep talk the other day, and it put me in a good mood? I guess I still feel happy from it!" Krylie said, grinning widely. Florine rolled her eyes.

"You're such a- what is that word teenagers on this planet use to describe people?"

"Uh, dork?"

"Ah, yes, that was it. You're a huge dork, Krylie."

"Wh-what? I am _not_ a dork!" Krylie looked like Florine just personally insulted her family. Florine chuckled, storing that word in her memory bank of insults.

"But then there's you," Florine continued, tenting her fingers and leaning on the table, boring holes into Neon, who looked away awkwardly.

"Um…This was recent, but I received a letter from Gallium earlier," Neon said.

"He came here? Why didn't you tell us?" Krylie whined. "I wanted to see him too!"

"Oh, no, he didn't give it to me. One of…_those_ did," he said back, frowning. A shiver went down Krylie's spine, and Florine looked a bit repulsed.

"Uuuugh, I hate those creepy Helminth! I'm so glad we don't have to deal with 'em," Krylie shuddered, sticking her tongue out with a gagging sound.

"Let's not talk about them," Florine said, neatly plucking the letter out of Neon's hand. "After all, I'm deeply curious about this love letter you received."

"WHAT?" Neon said loudly, face glowing red. "It's not-!"

"OooooOOOOH! So THAT'S why you were keeping it all to yourself~!" Krylie said, grabbing the letter from Florine.

"AHEM, allow moi to read it for you." With a dramatic flair, she started, "To my dearest lovemuffin-"

"'Lovemufin'? What is that even-"

"I miss your sparkling limpid orbs-"

"O-orbs?"

"-And your beautiful hair, woven from coooooornflower silk-"

"That doesn't even make sense-"

"-When I see you I'm totally gonna make out with you and touch that hot butt-"

"I have no idea what you just said but it sounded insulting!" Neon fumed, looking like an angry puppy.

"You're getting really good at sounding like an earth teenager," Florine said, impressed. Krylie grinned, and petted Neon on the back, who had deflated and now looked more like a kicked puppy.

"I'm just messin' with you," she cooed, and Neon looked mollified for it. Florine picked the letter from Krylie and read it herself.

"It's amazing that Gallium has the ability to be just as awkward and uptight in writing as he is in person," Florine commented, eyes skimming the paper. "It's just the same old 'status updates'…Wait a minute."

She looked harder at the paper, as if the words were tricks of the light.

"What? What is it?" Krylie asked curiously, peeking over her sister's shoulder to see. Neon smiled as he realized what they were reading.

"Gallium's coming back?!" Krylie said, half a cheer, half in disbelief.

"The 'soon' part worries me though," Florine said darkly. "You know how weird he is. 'Soon' could mean two years from now for all we know."

"I'm sure he means the normal kind of soon!" Neon said, pumped up.

"Ahhh~ This is exciting!" Krylie squealed. "I have to do my best now, so I have something to show when Gallium comes! I'll definitely get a bunch of Chrystal Hearts today!"

"Definitely, huh?" Florine said dully. Krylie stuck her tongue out at her.

"Definitely! Because I have a trick up my sleeve this time," she said mysteriously, and left the house.

* * *

How did they get into this mess?

Fuuka blamed Izumi, with loud mouth who had to talk to everyone in her stupid class about everything that happened in her stupid day, including the formation of this stupid fake club.

A bunch of girls from Izumi's class thought a purikura club was so cute, and wanted to join, of course! And since there wasn't an actual reason they could come up with to tell them they couldn't join, there was now a group of girls along with the Pretty Cure at the mall, hovering around a purikura station.

Well, Fuuka thought smugly to herself, at least her plan to enlist Shiori worked out-the girl in question was standing on the outskirts of the group along with Ion. She looked like she'd rather be stabbed with a rusty knife than be here right now, if the expression on her face said anything about it.

Hinata looked like she shared the sentiment, but she looked more like she was going to pass out compared to Shiori's dark glower.

"Everyone, please form groups of two to three and line up in an orderly fashion," Yume instructed, and everyone shuffled into place. None of the Pretty Cure were really shocked that Yume was getting so into running a fake club.

But they had more important things to worry about! Fuuka needed to get Shiori alone so she could tell her this was all an ingenious trick and now she had to be a Pretty Cure with them, but then Hinata shot that plan down with a simple sentence.

"Th-this is kind of exciting…I've never done this before."

Fuuka stared down at her. She was allowed to show excitement now, since everyone formed a line and she was smashed up in a crowd of people. Her eyes were sparkling, and her fingers were laced together in front of her mouth, hiding the timid but happy smile on her lips, and oh, Fuuka could forget about the plan for now. She wasn't going anywhere until she took a picture with this girl.

"I call club member seniority!" Fuuka said loudly, holding up a hand. "Dibs on going first!" She reached out and grabbed Izumi, who was trying to slink away.

"You too, Izumi-chan!"

"But I was gonna get food-…'chan'?"

"Forget food! We're making memories!"

With Izumi in tow Fuuka bulldozed her way to the front of the line, Hinata scurrying behind her.

"Chisou-…Yume-chan, you too!" Fuuka said as she ushered the others inside.

"Um, okay, F-Fuuka..chan? I said only two to three-"

"MEMORIES."

And with that, Yume was dragged in as well.

* * *

"Fuuka-san is very entertaining," Ion said, chuckling. She and Shiori were at the very back of the line, a small gap between them and the group of girls in front of them. No doubt they didn't want to be close to Shiori, which suited her just fine.

"That's one word for it," Shiori said, disinterested, and looked around the mall to find something more interesting to stare at than the back of the mildly terrified girl in front of her. She caught the gaze of a girl who was dressed like she took a bunch of models from the fronts of magazines and combined all their clothing into one giant incomprehensible mess.

It made Shiori's eyebrow twitch.

The fashion disaster jumped when Shiori looked at her, and she turned around quickly, looking like she was muttering something to herself. Shiori looked back ahead and decided to ignore the weirdo, but of course, she decided to approach Shiori.

"Hi." Was all she said. Shiori just kept staring ahead.

"Hello," Ion said, waving at her. "Can we help you?" Shiori tried to send a psychic message to Ion telling her to _shut up_, but she didn't get the hint.

"Ummm, yeaaah, I'm like, lost, and I was wondering if you could help me find this one store?" the girl asked, twirling a piece of hair around her finger. There was something mildly irritating to Shiori about the way she talked.

"Ask a security guard," Shiori said bluntly.

"I'll help you," Ion said simply. The girl frowned at her offer for some reason. Shiori sighed, finally turning towards the girl.

"Fine," was all she said, crossing her arms. "What are you looking for?"

The girl looked like a deer caught in headlights, and her eyes rolled to the sky in thought.

"Ummmmmm, I don't know the name of it? It's pink."

"It's…pink." Shiori was regretting this already.

"There can't be _that_ many pink stores in the mall," Ion said. "And maybe it'll be our turn by the time we get back!"

And they followed the weird girl away from their group, heading deeper into the mall.

* * *

"That...that was really fun!" Hinata said softly.

"Fun for you," Izumi said darkly, untangled herself from Fuuka and Yume. It was an incredibly tight fit for the three of them, but with Hinata's small size, she was able to sit nice and comfy in a little crevice in front of the other girls.

"This is why it's only two to three people, everyone!" Yume called out as soon as she got her legs untangled from Fuuka's.

"Hinata-chan, you get the prints; I need to talk to Niiwa…san?" Fuuka stood on her toes and looked all around the line of girls, but Shiori, and Ion for that matter, were nowhere to be seen.

"She bailed on us!" Fuuka yelled angrily. "That's against the rules!"

"Maybe she just got food. Something I could have done by now," Izumi muttered, crossing her arms.

"Let's look for her," Yume suggested.

* * *

Shiori was getting really tired of hearing this girl's drawn out "naaaaaah, that's not it" every time she turned down a possible 'pink' store as the one she was looking for.

She didn't even recognize where she was anymore, now in some inner sanctum of the mall that probably few humans ventured into.

"This is getting ridiculous," Shiori said at last, coming to a stop. "We're not going to find this 'pink store' of yours."

Even Ion was getting tired. "Yeah…I'm sorry. We've looked everywhere…"

The girl stood in front of them, dead quiet. Ion and Shiori shared a look, both confused.

Suddenly, a giggle came from the girl, and she raised her hand over her head, snapping her fingers. Her gaudy outfit disappeared, being replaced with a slightly….better…outfit…Shiori guessed.

"Even though my plans got a little mixed up, I still got you!" Krylie said, pointing a finger at Shiori.

"I think I vaguely remember you," Shiori said, rubbing her chin.  
"Do you have other magic powers besides being able to change clothes?" Ion asked, nonplussed.

"You should take me more seriously!" Krylie said, stomping her foot. "I'm gonna really get you this time-well, _you,"_ she made a gesture towards Shiori. "Not so much the other one."

"Aw, thanks," Ion said dreamily. Shiori rolled her eyes.

Krylie's scarf came to life, and shot into an old toyshop, sinking its fangs into a teddy bear. In no time at all, the bear grew huge, its face distorted into a pink mask, lined with pointy teeth.

"That's a lot more impressive than the clothes thing," Ion said, eyes wide. Shiori grit her teeth, and reached into her blazer pocket where she had been keeping that ugly charm bracelet, and placed it on her wrist.

"Get out of here, Ion," Shiori said, tone hard, and held up her hand.

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

Ion stared in amazement as Shiori did the same clothing transformation thing as the weird girl did, in no time at all.

"I said leave!" Azure barked at Ion, clenching her fists.

"But…That's a really big bear," Ion said, legs shaking. "I don't know if I can just leave you with it."

Azure snapped. "What could you possibly do?! You're weak; you'll just get in the way!" Even though her words were harsh, Ion could hear the desperation in her voice.

"Yaaaaawn, boring," Krylie said, and flicked her fingers towards Azure. "Get her, boy."

"MOGUNNNNNAAAAA!" The Mogunna roared, slamming a paw into the ground. Ion found herself quite unable to move, forcing Azure to spring into action, lifting her up bridal style and jumping out of the way of the punch.

Safely landed, Azure quickly let Ion down.

"This is why I said to go," she muttered, and ran back to fight the Mogunna. Ion clutched her hands together, knowing she really should leave, but still not able to just leave her by herself.

* * *

"This is the last food stand in the mall," Yume said, resting on a bench. "Maybe they went to a store?"

"Or home," Izumi said, munching on popcorn. Hinata sat next to Yume, opening her bag since no one was around.

"I know how you can check if scary girl is here," Jasper said once he was out of the bag. "But it'll cost you some of that thing you got over there that smells good." He pointed his paw to Izumi's popcorn, who groaned.

"I don't think it's worth it," she said, shoveling in a handful of popcorn. Fuuka glared at her.

"Pfft, fine," she grumbled, giving a few kernels to Jasper. He gathered them up greedily and munched on them.

And munched.

And munched.

"Are you going to tell us or what!?" Fuuka hissed, leaning down to look Jasper in the eye. Aqua and Ruby tumbled out of the bag, and Ruby immediately made a mad dash for Jasper, expertly snatching a few popcorn kernels out of Jasper's grasp and shoving them all into his mouth.

"Izumi-sensei's training has made me a little more powerful!" Ruby announced after he swallowed. Izumi beamed proudly and Jasper glared daggers at the both of them.

"More importantly," Aqua said, going up to Yume and tapping the Kira Kira Charmy on her wrist. "The Kira Kira Charmies can find the other ones. All you have to do is think about which one you want to find, and it will lead you to it."

"Oh, that's neat!" Yume said, and closed her eyes hard in concentration. Her Kira Kira Charmy started to glow, and soon a thin pink light shot out from it, pointing straight in front of her.

"That's the way, right? Let's go!" Fuuka roared, ushering Yume along in front of her.

* * *

Azure wasn't having a good time. The Mogunna was, for lack of a better word, completely beating the tar out of her. She didn't understand why-she beat that tree monster from the other day with no problem. Sure, she had a _little_ help last time. But she could have totally beaten it by herself. Definitely.

Azure just barely dodged another stomp from the Mogunna, but still got kicked harshly by its other foot, sending her flying into a wall. She didn't get back up.

"Haha! I knew you'd be easy pickings if you fought alone!" Krylie said triumphantly, her hands on her hips. Ion ran over to Azure, kneeling in front of her.

"Are you okay?" she asked, voice breaking off at the end.

"Do I look okay?" Azure groaned, struggling to get up.

"And now, for the grand finale, I think I'll take this girl's Crystal Heart!" Krylie said. The Mogunna opened its mouth wide, and inhaled deeply. Ion froze, her eyes glazing over, as a tiny white light floated out from her chest.

Azure stared in horror, but didn't have any strength left to even reach out to Ion. She shut her eyes tightly closed, trying to block out the scene in front of her, but then she heard a sharp cry-

"Pretty Cure, Shining Heart!"

Azure's eyes shot back open, and she managed to catch both Garnet and Amber jump up and launch twin punches at the Mogunna's back, making it wobble off balance and shut its mouth. This caused the light to go back into Ion's chest, and her consciousness flickered back to her.

"Did I fall asleep?" she asked, confused as she looked around. "Waa, there's more people like you, Shiori?"

Azure didn't answer; she couldn't take her eyes off of the other Pretty Cure, who were attacking the teddy bear Mogunna with more ferocity than they did to the tree one.

Krylie was practically ripping her pigtails out in frustration. "This wasn't supposed to happen!" she yelled. "You were supposed to be a loner! Why the heck did you guys come to help her when she doesn't want anything to do with you?!"

"Obviously, we can't just leave someone behind!" Amber shouted. "It's the heroes' duty to help those in need!"

Petal nodded. "Even if Azure isn't with us, she is still a loved member of the Pretty Cure, and we will definitely help her!"

"To do anything less wouldn't be very nice of us, would it?" Peridot added cheekily.

"So, knowing that," Garnet said, her voice soft but resolute. "We definitely, definitely won't give up in saving her…!"

Azure didn't know how to respond to that, and simply stared at the four in shock. Ion smiled gently, putting her hand on Azure's shoulder.

"I never knew you had such good friends, Shiori." Azure was silent, biting her lip and looking away.

Garnet, Peridot, Petal, and Amber gathered together, each holding out one hand towards the Mogunna, and shouted all at once.

"Pretty Cure, Fiery Valor!"

"Pretty Cure, Windy Smile!"

"Pretty Cure, Love Strike!"

"Pretty Cure, Light Slash!"

Light burst from their outstretched hands, entwining together, and crashed into the Mogunna. Though it looked to be in pain, it still held on, standing its ground.

"They don't have enough power," Azure murmured, trying to stand, but fell.

"I've got you," Ion said. She lifted Azure up to her legs, and let her lean on her shoulder for support. Azure grimaced in pain, but managed to lift up her arm.

"Pretty Cure…Vapor Channel!"

Blue light struck the Mogunna in the back, and with its added power, destroyed it. It let out a death cry, and dissolved into thin air. A teddy bear appeared where it once was.

"Jeez, when are things supposed to start looking up for me?" Krylie whined. She snapped her fingers and disappeared.

"WE DID IT!" The four Pretty Cure cried, giving each other high-fives (and then leaning down to give Garnet a low-five). They all transformed back into their civilian forms, as did Shiori, who still looked a bit beat up.

"Niiwa-san, are you okay?" Yume asked, and the group jogged over to Shiori.

"E-eh, Ion-san is here too?!" Fuuka yelped.

"Th-this was all a dream! You didn't see anything!" Izumi said, waving her hands in circles like she was trying to hypnotize Ion.

"Pl-please don't tell anyone about this…" Hinata mumbled, poking her index fingers together.

"Your secret is safe with me," Ion promised. "Are you feeling better, Shiori-chan?" Shiori just silently stood up herself, not needing Ion's shoulder for support anymore. Before she could say anything, the gaggle of girls from the purikura club ran up to them.

"There you are, Yume-san!" One girl cried. "We were looking everywhere for you!"

"Well, now that we found you, we wanted to say, this was the best club ever!" Another girl squealed, jumping up and down. "We all want to be official members of the Purikura Club!"

Yume winced. "Oh, well, about that…" Izumi and Fuuka tried to explain the club was a giant sham, and Hinata just stood there awkwardly. Shiori watched them crash and burn for a moment before stepping up.

"I was appointed club leader," she announced, putting on her serious face that she reserved for the swim team when she really wanted to scare them. "So if you stay in this club, be prepared to work the hardest that you have ever in your life."

"H-how can you even work hard at taking pictures with friends?" a girl whispered anxiously to another.

"I don't know, but Niiwa-san can probably find a way to do it!"

"U-um, actually, I think I'll be too busy to join," a girl said timidly. The others murmured their agreements, and quickly fled.

"Weaklings," Shiori scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Th-thank you, Niiwa-san!" Yume gushed. Hinata nodded.

"Th-that would have b-been very hard to deal with…" she near whispered.

"You don't have to call me Niiwa-san," Shiori said, voice thin. "I'm not the leader of this team."

"Leader?" Fuuka repeated.

"Does that mean…?" Izumi started.

"Sh-Shiori-chan is joining us!" Yume cheered, throwing her arms around Shiori in a hug. Izumi and Fuuka followed suit, and even Hinata managed to hop on as well.

"What are you doing?!" Shiori almost shrieked, looking down at the girls like they were out of their mind. "This is completely unnecessary! Get off!"

Off to the side, Ion smiled fondly at the scene of a flustered Shiori trying to shake the girls off.

* * *

Hinata: Shiori-chan, y-you're leader of the swim team, right?

Shiori: Yes.

Hinata: That must mean y-you can swim well, huh? I'm jealous; I-I sink like a log…

Shiori: If you wish, I can teach you how to swim on my time off.

Fuuka: Wooow, Shiori-chan is actually really nice?

Yume: Maybe she's one of those people who just act rude, but are nice on the inside?

Izumi: D-does this mean you're not a ghost princess?

Shiori: You're all ridiculous. Swimming is an important life skill. I wasn't offering to be 'nice', idiot.

Izumi: Oooh, Shiori-chan is a tsundere-type, then?

Hinata: If that's the case, w-we have to melt her icy heart with fr-friendship!

Shiori: I think I've made a huge mistake.

**Shiori: Next time on Crystal Hearts Pretty Cure: "Finding the Wisdom in Magic to Heal Your Soul! Cure Amethyst is Born!"**


End file.
